{"id":51508,"date":"2024-01-23T18:17:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-23T18:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/sabalenka-blasts-into-australian-open-semis-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-01-23T18:17:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T18:17:08","slug":"sabalenka-blasts-into-australian-open-semis-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/sabalenka-blasts-into-australian-open-semis-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka blasts into Australian Open semis | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nMELBOURNE:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dominant defending champion Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday stormed past ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova, setting up an intriguing Australian Open semi-final with Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

The world number two was untouchable in a commanding 6-2, 6-3 victory on Rod Laver Arena, reaching the last four at a Grand Slam for the sixth consecutive time.<\/p>\n

She will meet Gauff next in a replay of last year’s US Open final, which the American teenager won in three sets.<\/p>\n

After that defeat when favourite at Flushing Meadows, Sabalenka made clear she wants to ensure she is not a one-hit wonder.<\/p>\n

And on current form, dropping just 16 games so far at Melbourne Park, Gauff will be the underdog again.<\/p>\n

“I played really great tennis, I just hope I can keep playing this way,” said the 25-year-old Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

“I mean, it’s all because of the atmosphere. I have the best support here.”<\/p>\n

The Belarusian had won all seven of her previous Grand Slam quarter-finals and attributed her consistency to hard work.<\/p>\n

“A lot of hard work. I have been working so hard this last year and in pre-season. It’s all about hard work, give it all in the practice court so you are ready for the match,” she said.<\/p>\n

She wasted little time laying down the law against Krejcikova, the 2021 French Open champion, working two break points off the Czech’s serve in game three and making no mistake.<\/p>\n

Further breaks came in game five and seven, with Sabalenka in full control, serving to love for the set in just 33 minutes.<\/p>\n

Krejcikova had reached the last eight after an arduous journey, losing the first set in three of her first four matches, before bouncing back.<\/p>\n

But there was no repeat against a player in peak form and whose booming groundstrokes were unstoppable.<\/p>\n

The second set followed a similar pattern, with Sabalenka breaking in game three and five.<\/p>\n

The Czech player, who has never gone past the last eight in Melbourne staged a mini-recovery but it was too little too late as the second seed galloped home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MELBOURNE: Dominant defending champion Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday stormed past ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova, setting up an intriguing Australian Open semi-final with Coco Gauff. The world number two was untouchable in a commanding 6-2, 6-3 victory on Rod Laver Arena, reaching the last four at a Grand Slam for the sixth consecutive time. She will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":51509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Aryna-Sabalenka-Photo-AFP1706020598-0\/Aryna-Sabalenka-Photo-AFP1706020598-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}