(Tennis news) To advance to the last eight, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Panna Udvardy, Varvara Gracheva, Anna Blinkova, and Ekaterina Alexandrova. In the quarterfinals, she faced off against last year’s runner-up in the US Open, Madison Keys.

To lead 5-2 in the opening set, Sabalenka twice broke Keys’ serve. She then came up to serve for the set, and after saving a breakpoint, she succeeded on her third set point. In the second set, Keys scored early to take a 4-2 lead. She made an effort to maintain her advantage and was 40-0 up in the following game on her own serve, but Sabalenka had other ideas. She defeated the American 6-2, 6-4, breaking her serve along the way, and advanced to the semifinals for the second time.

To advance to the quarterfinals, Jabeur defeated Magdalena Frech, Zhuoxuan Bai, Bianca Andreescu, and Petra Kvitova. She subsequently squared off against reigning champion Elena Rybakina in the venue’s rematch of last year’s championship match. 

Ons Jabeur was behind 3-1 in the opening set but eventually tied it up. In order to increase her lead to 6-5 and serve for the game’s opening point, she obtained another brick in the 11th game. The Tunisian’s service was subsequently broken by Rybakina to force a tie-break, which she also won after she had previously saved a set point and broken it.

Throughout most of the second set, the two were evenly matched. As the set score stood at 5-4, Rybakina was serving to continue. For the final point of the set, Jabeur broke the Kazakh’s serve. The Tunisian won by a score of 6-7 (5), 6-4, and 6-1 in the decisive set, which was quite one-sided and saw him drop just one game.

Head-to-Head

Comparatively, Sabalenka has a 3-1 advantage over Jabeur. In their previous meeting in the 2022 WTA Finals, the former prevailed in three sets.

Predictions

From a set down, Jabeur produced outstanding tennis to overcome Rybakina. She made just 18 unforced errors while connecting on 35 of her swings. Her serving totals were also rather respectable. Sabelenka was in charge of the match from the outset, with the exception of a slight hiccup in the second set against Keys.

In addition to having a chance to advance to the championship game, Sabalenka up next is her chance to dethrone Iga Swiatek as the world’s top player. The previous time, when she lost to Karolina Muchova in the French Open semifinals, the strain got to her, and she blew a match point.

She will have some relief thanks to Sabalenka’s winning record versus Jabeur. The latter’s variety doesn’t concern her too much because she can control the play with her blunt approach. In 2021, she also triumphed over the Tunisian at Wimbledon.

Jabeur will be ready for Sabalenka after playing two back-to-back matches against powerful opponents like Kvitova and Rybakina. The Belarusian will, however, be favoured to go to the final provided she can retain her composure.

Aryna Sabalenka will triumph in three sets.

Also read: Carlos Alcaraz defeats Holger Rune to enter the semi-finals