the belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (5) was ruthless against Croatian Donna Vekic after winning clearly 6-3 6-2 and will face the Polish Magda Linette in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Sabalenka, who has amassed a total of 143 wins since the competition began, is the leading candidate for the title because of his status as the best seed and because of his nine game winning streak who started his title in Adelaide in the first week of the season.
“I don’t know why but here it feels very good to enter the semifinals. It’s very special. I was very happy with the victory. The atmosphere is amazing. I can say that this site is my favorite”, he commented in an interview with former player Jelena Dokic about Rod Laver Arena.
Vekic, coming off one of the sweetest moments of his career after winning 16 of his last 19 matches, didn’t do any damage with a serve that worked like a charm in the previous rounds after getting a measly 44%. in the game
“He is a great player and it is always difficult to play against him. I’m waiting for this game, it’s time to be in the game no matter what ”. Sabalenka said about the Croatian.
Vekic’s doubts contrasted with a more accurate Sabalenka on her serve, who amassed a 60% success rate and only conceded a break in two sets that lasted one hour and 19 minutes.
It was the first victory of the Belarusian against the Croatian after Vekic took only two games played in the Tokyo Olympics and the San Diego tournament last year.
Another key to the match was the aggressiveness of the fifth seed, who scored 18 wins, and denied the Croatian to offer his offensive repertoire. It showed the ten ‘winners’ he had connected during the crash.
This is the first time a Minsk player has qualified for the semifinals at Melbourne Park and the fourth time he has made it past the quarterfinals in a ‘slam’ competition after staying out of the grand final gate in New York (2021 and 2022) and London (2021).
Sabalenka prevailed comfortably on the only two occasions where she crossed paths with her next opponentthe revelation of 30-year-old Magda Linette.
The only Pole with draw options was the revelation of the tournament, after sweeping four straight seeded heads, she defeated Czech Karolina Pliskova (30) 6-3, 7-5 in the match that opened the day of work.
Linette, who got the same number of winners as her rival (18), she was stronger than the Czech after making up to 20 fewer unforced errors than a Pliskova who only got a break in the entire match.
After the win, the face-to-face between the two tennis players ended 4-2 in favor of Pliskova.
The only Polish with individual modality options in both male and female it took an hour and a half to eliminate former world number one Pliskova on a sunny and warm morning at Rod Laver Arena.
Prior to this tournament, the 30-year-old Polish had failed to make it past the third round of a ‘slam’ after tripping up to six times at the gate of the round of 16.
Linette, sponsored by Spanish brand Joma, She left the Estonian Anett Kontaveit (16), the Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova (19) and the French Caroline Garcia (4) in the previous rounds.
The tennis player from Poznan will enter the top-20 after the end of the competition and become the third woman in the Open Era to reach the semifinal at Melbourne Park behind her compatriots Agnieszka Radwanska and Iga Swiatek (1).
Source: La Verdad
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