{"id":412695,"date":"2026-01-14T16:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412695\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T16:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T16:50:09","slug":"taylah-preston-makes-hobart-international-quarterfinals-after-upset-win-over-rebecca-sramkova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/412695\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylah Preston makes Hobart International quarterfinals after upset win over Rebecca Sramkova"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian youngster Taylah Preston has made her first top-level quarterfinal after upsetting Rebecca \u0160ramkov\u00e1 in straight sets in the Hobart International.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old world number 204, who also has a wildcard at the upcoming Australian Open, finished with a flurry to beat the Slovakian number 72 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

She dropped the opening game of the second set in the second-round match before reeling off six straight.<\/p>\n

“I think I handled myself really well in that situation. I just tried to stay relaxed and trust what I was doing,” Preston said.<\/p>\n

“It’s something that me and my coach have talked about, just playing fearless.<\/p>\n

“With the way I play, I’m probably going to miss a few shots but just keep going for it and commit and trust what I’m doing.”<\/p>\n

Preston, who hails from Western Australia, pulled off the biggest win of her career rankings-wise in the opening round, accounting for fifth seed J\u00e9ssica Bouzas Maneiro.<\/p>\n

She hit a career-high ranking of 134 in 2024 but fell outside the top 200 heading into this season.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a bit of a tough last 12 months,” she said.<\/p>\n

“So to be able to get my confidence up and know that I can compete and win at this level is a massive \u2026 booster and hopefully sets myself up for the rest of the year.”<\/p>\n

Australian Open 2026: Everything you need to know<\/a><\/p>\n

With the 2026 Australian Open just around the corner here’s everything you need to know about the tournament.<\/p>\n

Preston will face either grand slam champion and top seed Emma Raducanu or Polish world number 72 Magdalena Frech for a place in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n

“It would be a really cool experience for me to test myself [against Raducanu]. She’s won a grand slam and is obviously a very, very good player,” she said.<\/p>\n

At last year’s Hobart, Australia’s top-ranked woman, Maya Joint, sparked a breakout season with a run to the semifinals from outside the top 100.<\/p>\n

Raducanu, who won the 2021 US Open as a qualifier, got through to the second round on Wednesday when she finished off a rain-delayed match against Maria Camila Osorio Serrano.<\/p>\n

The Brit came from behind in the second set for a 6-3, 7-6 (7\/2) victory.<\/p>\n

Raducanu and Frech will play their second-round match on Thursday, with the winner expected to back up for the quarterfinal against Preston later in the day.<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australian youngster Taylah Preston has made her first top-level quarterfinal after upsetting Rebecca \u0160ramkov\u00e1 in straight sets in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,21345,195464,93439,63947,85,198194,747],"class_list":{"0":"post-412695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-emma-raducanu","11":"tag-hobart-international","12":"tag-magdalena-frech","13":"tag-rebecca-sramkova","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-taylah-preston","16":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}