The world number 2 had only lost eleven games (and no sets) to reach the quarter-finals. Tuesday, against the Czech Barbora Krejcikova, 11th in the world and by far her toughest opponent on paper since the start of the tournament, the defending champion never trembled (6-2, 6-3).
Too powerful
She immediately imposed her clearly superior power on serve and rally, to quickly take the lead (4-1, double break). In great difficulty behind her second balls (only 20% of points won), Krejcikova tried to take the Belarusian out of her comfort zone by offering her cottony, sliced, low or, on the contrary, very rounded balls. But Sabalenka, who has made significant progress in the short game, had the answer to everything.
16
Aryna Sabalenka lost just 16 games (and no sets) to reach the Australian Open semifinals
Krejcikova then tried a few drop shots, often poorly hit, or to follow her rare accelerations at the net. Except that surprisingly, since she is an excellent doubles player, the Czech showed a lot of clumsiness on the fly. Result, in less than an hour, the score was 6-2, 4-1, double break in favor of Sabalenka who, despite a break, concluded a few minutes later with a blank break.
