AFP – Aryna Sabalenka kept a historic Australian Open hat-trick on track yesterday as she battled past Russian 27th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in the quarter-finals.
The world number one will face Spain’s Paula Badosa for a place in the Melbourne final after the Spanish 11th seed stunned Coco Gauff in straight sets.
It was the Belarusian’s 19th win in a row at Melbourne Park but turned into a battle for survival in increasingly windy conditions during a match that had both players struggling to hold serve in the third set.
“Honestly I was just praying, trying to put the ball back in these tough conditions,” said Sabalenka, the champion in Melbourne for the past two years.
“We both were, it was difficult to play. I’m just super happy I was able to somehow magically win this match.”
The quarter-final opened in nervy fashion with few baseline exchanges and Sabalenka broke early to grab a 3-1 lead.
She did not face a break point in the opener and clinched the set in 31 minutes with a rocket forehand crosscourt winner.
The stiffening breeze and falling temperatures resulted in staccato tennis for the purists.
Only eight of 50 rallies in the first set lasted longer than four shots and only one went beyond nine as winners were peppered with errors.
Pavlyuchenkova turned the match on its head in the second set as a brilliant forehand down the line gave her a break, and then she held for a 3-1 lead.
Pavlyuchenkova found another gear and began to extend the rallies, breaking again to lead 4-1.
An exchange of breaks took the Russian to a 5-2 lead and she served out to love to level the match. Another Sabalenka unforced error, her 19th, saw her broken again at the start of the third set.
Both players were struggling badly by now to keep the ball in court and the first four games went against serve.
In the eighth game Sabalenka made the decisive move, breaking for 5-3 and going on to clinch the match in 1 hour 53 minutes.
Standing in Sabalenka’s path to the final will be Badosa, who almost quit the sport last year because of a chronic back condition.
