Tag: Aryna Sabalenka

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka cruised into the Wimbledon second round on Monday, beating Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine 6-1, 7-5.

The 27-year-old Belarusian is a three-time Grand Slam champion but has never been beyond the semi-finals at the All England Club.

She is looking to ease the pain of losing in the finals of the Australian Open and the French Open this year.

Sabalenka broke Branstine twice in a one-sided first set as the Canadian struggled with her serve.

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Branstine was a tougher proposition in the second set, winning the first game to love on her own serve, but missed a chance to break in the next game.

The 24-year-old was playing her first Grand Slam main-draw match but enjoyed significant wins over French Open semi-finalist Lois Boisson and Bianca Andreescu in qualifying.

The match were locked at 5-5 in the second set before Sabalenka broke in the 11th game and served out the victory to set up a meeting with New Zealand’s Lulu Sun or Czech player Marie Bouzkova.

Earlier, two-time Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur broke down in tears before retiring from her first-round match against Viktoriya Tomova on Monday.

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Tunisia’s Jabeur was trailing 7-6 (7/5), 2-0 when she brought a premature end to her clash with the Bulgarian world number 111 Viktoriya Tomova at the All England Club.

The 30-year-old, beaten in the 2022 and 2023 Wimbledon finals, looked uncomfortable throughout the match in sweltering temperatures in London.

The world number 59 wiped away tears after losing a long fifth game in the first set and took a lengthy medical timeout, with staff attending to her before taking her off court.

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Aryna Sabalenka said Tuesday that she wants to cap off a stellar year by returning to the top of the world rankings.

The world number two is the top seed at the China Open this week following the withdrawal of top-ranked Iga Swiatek, the defending champion, because of undisclosed “personal matters”.

Fresh from winning the US Open, Aryna Sabalenka can take a large step towards overhauling the Pole at the top of the rankings with victory in Beijing.

“Of course that’s one of my goals, to finish the season at world number one,” the Belarusian, who won the Australian Open at the start of the year for a second time, said.

But the 26-year-old added: “I’m not trying to focus on that, I’m trying to focus on my game. There is only three tournaments left.

“I’m just trying to bring my best tennis on court. After the season, I’ll see if it was enough to finish the year at number one or have to improve something else to get to number one.”

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The three-time major champion first became world number one a year ago, before being usurped by Swiatek.

“To be called the best player in the world, that means everything. It’s good to know that you’ve been doing the right thing, all of that hours of training, wasn’t a waste of time,” she said.

Aryna Sabalenka will be playing for the first time since beating Jessica Pegula in the final in New York earlier this month. She has a bye in the first round.

Pegula also features at the prestigious 1000 WTA hardcourt event in the Chinese capital, along with fellow American Coco Gauff, four-time major champion Naomi Osaka and China’s Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen.

The competition begins on Wednesday.

A men’s ATP 500 event runs alongside the women’s tournament.

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MELBOURNE: Belarusian professional tennis trailblazer Aryna Sabalenka scripted an astounding comeback from a set down to edge reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina to win the Australian Open 2023.

The Belarusian tennis player fought hard for her first grand slam title with an astounding 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 triumph in the enthralling final that lasted 2hr 28min at Rod Laver Arena.

Unlike the final outcome, Sabalenka got off to a shaky start as Rybakina breezed through the first set in a mere 34 minutes, but the Belarusian fought back in the second set, which lasted 57 minutes, to force a nail-biting decider.

The nail-biting decider then lived up to its title with both players pushing each other rigorously but Sabalenka held her composure to eventually sail through.

Following her first grand slam title, Sabalenka will now rise to the second spot in the WTA Rankings, equalling her career high.

Meanwhile, the reigning Wimbledon champion and Australia Open runner-up Rybakina will enter the Top 10 for the first time.

The Kazakhstan-hailed tennis player earned no ranking points for her Wimbledon glory because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players in the most coveted tennis grand slam.

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MELBOURNE: Aryna Sabalenka will face Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final after overpowering unseeded Magda Linette 7-6 (7/1), 6-2 in a semi-final played in chilly conditions on Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.

Fifth seed Sabalenka’s maiden Grand Slam final appearance will be against the Wimbledon champion, who earlier beat Victoria Azarenka in straight sets.

“I’m super happy, super happy that I was able to get this win,” said the Belarusian, who had been hoping to play her compatriot Azarenka in Saturday’s showpiece.

“Magda’s an unbelievable player. She played really great tennis,” added the 24-year-old.

Sabalenka came into the match as many observers’ favourite for the Melbourne crown but she had never won a Grand Slam semi-final in three previous attempts.

She had led world number one Iga Swiatek 4-2 in the third set of their US Open semi-final in September before a spectacular meltdown where she lost 16 of the last 20 points.

That sort of mental baggage in tennis is always lurking, especially for someone as emotional as Sabalenka, who has admitted to being stymied by nerves in the past.

But the world number five has been in the form of her life since arriving in Australia.

She won the Adelaide International warm-up tournament and has now extended her unbeaten streak to 10 matches, not losing a single set in any of them.

Sabalenka has been exuding a calmer, more assured, persona on court, without losing any of her famed aggression.

It was this new version of Sabalenka that was to undergo a severe examination early against Poland’s surprise-package Linette.

Linette had enjoyed a dream run to her first Grand Slam semi-final at the age of 30, already knocking out four seeded players on the way including world number four Caroline Garcia of France.

The Pole was out of the gate fastest, breaking to love in the opening game and holding for an early lead.

Sabalenka was being made to work hard and showed all her new-found patience to get back on terms with a break of her own, to love, for 2-2 and the set went to a tiebreak.

Sabalenka timed her moment perfectly to up the aggression, and the decibel level, racing to 4-0 with a scream.

An ace that barely clipped the line stretched it to 5-0 and she closed out comfortably after 51 minutes, having smacked 20 winners to just seven from Linette.

“I would say that I didn’t start really well,” admitted Sabalenka.

“And then on the tiebreak I kind of found my rhythm and just started trusting myself, started going for the shots. It was great tennis from me in the tiebreak.”

Sabalenka showed no sign of letting up in the second set, breaking Linette and with a scream of “Come on!” holding for a 3-1 advantage.

A second break took her within sight of the finish line, which she raced across in 1hr 33min.

Linette, who had been flying the flag for Poland after the shock exit of world number one Swiatek, will have the consolation of soaring to a career-high 22nd in the world when the new rankings come out on Monday.

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NEW YORK: World number one Iga Swiatek defeated Aryna Sabalenka in three sets to set up a US Open final showdown with Ons Jabeur on Thursday.

Two-time French Open champion Swiatek came from behind to defeat sixth-seed Sabalenka 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 at Arthur Ashe Stadium and reach her maiden US Open final.

Sabalenka had been chasing the first Grand Slam final of her career after just missing out with semi-final defeats at Wimbledon and the US Open last year.

But the 24-year-old from Belarus suffered a late collapse while leading in the third set as Swiatek edged victory.

Polish star Swiatek said an emergency bathroom break after losing the first set had been crucial.

“I kind of needed to go,” Swiatek said. “For sure I felt lighter. I’m sorry — that’s disgusting,” the 21-year-old added.

“I tried to use that time to think about what to change because I remember when I was younger all I would do in the bathroom between sets after I lost was cry.

“But this time I could think about what to change and actually problem solve.”

Sabalenka looked well placed to break her final duck as she swept into an early lead against the top seed.

The hard-hitting Sabalenka broke Swiatek three times in the opening set, rattling her opponent’s shaky service game and stretching her with an array of powerful groundstrokes.

But Swiatek looked rejuvenated after her bathroom break following the first set and came out for the second all guns blazing.

She broke Sabalenka to love in the opening game and then held twice for a 3-1 lead.

She sealed a further break with a backhand cross-court return of serve to open up a 4-1 advantage as Sabalenka struggled to cope with the change in tempo.

She was broken again in the seventh game, Swiatek levelling the match after Sabalenka fluffed an easy volley at the net on set point.

Nevertheless Sabalenka appeared to have stopped the bleeding in the third set.

She broke Swiatek in the opening game and then broke again for a 3-2 lead after Swiatek had broken back.

She held serve for a 4-2 lead and the momentum seemed to be with her.

But Sabalenka’s game disintegrated from that point on. Swiatek broke her to love to make it 4-4 and then held for a 5-4 lead.

Sabalenka was overrun in the 10th game as Swiatek raced into a 0-40 lead to move to triple matchpoint.

Sabalenka held off the first with a forehand volley at the net, but her 44th unforced error  on the next point sealed her fate.

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