After coming as close to defeat here as she has for three years, trailing by a break in the nerve-racking final set of her quarter-final, Aryna Sabalenka drew on her unshakable mental toughness to find a way through with a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
The No 1 seed and two-time defending champion extended her winning streak at the Australian Open to 20 matches and she has now won 29 of her past 30 matches in Australia. Sabalenka, who is 10-0 in 2025, had won 25 consecutive sets in Melbourne until Tuesday night.
Sabalenka’s consistency at the grand slams has been second to none. She has reached the semi-finals in eight of her past nine major tournaments, her only loss coming in the quarter-finals of the French Open last year when she was suffering from an illness.
“I’m really glad that at some point I was able to put myself back together and was able to get back to the match,” said Sabalenka. “It was a really difficult one.”
She now continues her attempt to become the first player in 26 years to win three consecutive Australian Open titles (Martina Hingis completed her three-peat in 1999) and will face Paula Badosa, her close friend, in the semi-final after the 11th seed upset Coco Gauff, the third seed, 7-5, 6-4.
Sabalenka looked imperious early on despite the windy conditions as she marched to an easy 6-2 first set with an exhibition of destructive attacking play. Pavlyuchenkova, a finalist at the 2021 French Open and a talented shotmaker who has spent most of her career in and around the top 100, eventually settled down. She began to strike the ball beautifully, deflecting the pace provided by Sabalenka by taking the ball early and rushing the Belarusian in the process.
After breaking serve for 2-1 in the third set, however, Pavlyuchenkova’s nerves finally caught up with her. She played a tense, error-strewn service game, losing it to love. Sabalenka did not allow her opponent another opportunity.
“It’s not about being scared,” she said. “It’s about finding the way out. In the second set I was struggling with finding the way, but then I found one way.”
