Should the center court be renamed “Rod Laver Aryna”? Aryna Sabalenka reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open this Sunday, her 18th victory in a row in Melbourne, while Coco Gauff (3rd), also qualified, dropped her first set since November.
Sabalenka in demonstration, Gauff in three sets
Double title holder in Melbourne, Aryna Sabalenkaimperial against the young Russian Mirra Andreeva (15th), was the first player to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.
The Belarusian, winner of the Brisbane tournament at the beginning of January, won 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour on the court of the Rod Laver Arena, signing her 9th victory in a row since the start of the season.
She will face the Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (32nd), who beat the Croatian on Sunday Donna Vekic (19th) in two rounds, to try to secure a place in the last four.
Sunday, Sabalenka won his 18th match in a row in Melbourne, a performance not seen since 2014.
The Belarusian affirmed at a press conference that her laborious success in the 3rd round against the Dane Clara Tauson had helped her.
“When you have to overcome a lot of obstacles and still win the whole match, it gives you so much confidence for the next one“, she said.
After the first rounds contested in an unusual cool weather in Melbourne, Sabalenka this time won in the sweltering Australian summer.
-“The last few days the ball was super heavy. Today (Sunday) the ball was flying like a rocket“, she congratulated herself.
After the rapid success of Belarus, Coco Gauff needed three sets (5-7, 6-2, 6-1) and around 2h30 to overcome Belinda Bencicfalling to 294th place after a break away from the circuit where she gave birth to a daughter.
Olympic champion in 2021, Bencic “played really well in the first set, I had a hard time being on the offensive“, affirmed Gauff after her victory, the first in three sets since her victorious final in early November at the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia.
“I played more aggressively in the 2nd and 3rd sets“, continued the American, who will challenge the Spaniard Paula Badosa (12th) for a place in the last square.
The success of the winner of the US Open 2023 against Bencic constitutes her 13th victory in a row, which is undefeated since a defeat in the group stage of the WTA Finals against the Czech Barbora Krejcikova (9e).
Paula Badosa beat the Serbian earlier in the afternoon Olga Danilovic (55th) with a score of 6-1, 7-6 (7/2). The Spaniard equals the best performance of her Grand Slam career, having reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros in 2021 and the US Open in 2024.
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