Sabalenka capitalizes on fighting spirit

MELBOURNE — World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka said Sunday her fighting spirit helped her bounce back from a stuttering first week at the Australian Open to blast into the quarterfinals.

Sabalenka is on track for a historic third consecutive Melbourne Park title after she steamrollered teenager Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-2.

Sabalenka dropped her serve eight times in her previous two wins but was back to her imperious best against the Russian 17-year-old on the hottest day of the tournament so far, only conceding three break points and saving all of them.

"Those matches gave me so much belief that, no matter what, I'm going to be there, I'm going to be fighting," the Belarusian told reporters.

"When you struggle with your game and you had to overcome a lot of things and you still win a match, it gives you so much confidence going into the next one.

"For me, it's about staying in the moment and focusing on myself and on bringing my best game," Sabalenka added.

"I know that, if I'm able to bring my best game, I can get the win."

Her rapid victory, her 18th in a row at Melbourne Park, meant she only spent 62 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena as temperatures nudged 32 degrees Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) during her match.

She was clearly reveling in the heat, which brought faster conditions on court.

"The ball was flying like a rocket. I hope conditions are going to be the same till the end of the tournament," said Sabalenka.

She will face another Russian, the 27th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, for a place in the semifinal and a potential blockbuster clash with Coco Gauff.

Sabalenka ripped through her first two service games against Andreeva without conceding a point before racing to the first set in just 24 minutes.

Sabalenka did not let up at the start of the second set and cruised to the finish line to keep her on course for a rare hat-trick of consecutive Australian Open titles.

It was last achieved 26 years ago by Martina Hingis and only matched by four other women in history, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles.

Pavlyuchenkova beat an ailing Croatian 18th seed Donna Vekic 7-6(0), 6-0 on John Cain Arena.

Vekic, who reached the semifinals at Wimbledon last year, needed treatment on her knee at the end of a tight first set and from then on it was one-way traffic.

"Obviously that's not the way you want a match to finish. I hope she will be OK," Pavlyuchenkova said of Vekic, who was hobbling badly.

"I'm happy I managed to keep putting the ball in the court."

Pavlyuchenkova, 33, reached the Australian Open quarterfinals in 2017, 2019 and 2020 but has never gotten to the last four.

It is the veteran's 20th year on the WTA Tour and said she is astonished that she can keep up with younger opponents.

"I don't know, it amazes me also because I think the level is so good," she said. "It's so, so high now and everybody is so much younger than me."

Dropping first set

Coco Gauff of the US dropped a set for the first time this season but fought back to beat Belinda Bencic 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

Until Sunday, Gauff — a 20-yearold from Florida who won the 2023 US Open as a teenager — had collected all 16 sets she'd played this year and 24 of her past 25 dating to the end of last season, which included a title at the WTA Finals.

Sabalenka and Gauff will meet in the semifinals should they win their respective matches in the last eight.

The world No 3 Gauff next faces Spain's 11th seed Paula Badosa, who swept past Serbia's Olga Danilovic 6-1, 7-6 (2).

"I thought in the first set she played great tennis and it was tough for me to be on the offensive," Gauff said after outlasting Bencic to extend her unbeaten streak to 13 matches going back to last year's WTA Tour Finals.

"I just played more aggressively in the second set and then also the third set. But overall, I'm happy with how I played."

Part of the problem in the early going, to be sure, was that Bencic is a terrific ball-striker. Her current ranking of No 294 is misleading: The 27-year-old from Switzerland, who reached a career best of No 4, only returned to action in October from maternity leave.

Her best past results have arrived on hard courts, including a run to the semifinals of the US Open in 2019 and a singles gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. She's now 0-3 in fourth-round matches at Melbourne Park, though, losing previously to International Tennis Hall of Fame member Maria Sharapova in 2016 and to eventual champion Sabalenka two years ago.

Carlos Alcaraz reached his second Australian Open quarterfinal on Sunday when his opponent Jack Draper retired injured when trailing 7-5, 6-1.

Spaniard Alcaraz was well on top in the afternoon match at Rod Laver Arena against the Briton, who took a lengthy time-out between the sets.

The four-time Grand Slam champion will meet the winner of Novak Djokovic and Jiri Lehecka.

Tommy Paul ended Alejandro Davidovich Fokina's run of comebacks at the Australian Open and reached his third Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 victory.

Paul, an American seeded 12th at Melbourne Park, needed less than one and a half hours to finish off a physically diminished opponent, who sought help from a trainer. There was no turnaround this time for the 66th-ranked Davidovich Fokina, who had won each of his last two matches despite dropping the first two sets in both.

Agencies