Thursday 28 / November / 2024
Melbourne : No.5 seed Aryna Sabalenka booked her place in her first Grand Slam final with a win over Magda Linette in the semi-finals of the ongoing Australian Open here at Rod Laver Arena on Thursday.
Sabalenka delivered a sublime performance to oust Linette 7-6(1), 6-2 to book her place in the final. In total, Sabalenka fired 33 winners to Linette's nine, outweighing her 25 unforced errors.
The 1-hour, 33-minute contest was Sabalenka's third win in as many meetings over Linette, but easily the tightest. The first set's fourth game proved crucial. In contrast to Sabalenka's hasty blunders, Linette had a defined counterpunching strategy and good serving when she first entered the match. But with Linette serving at 2-1 and 40-0, Sabalenka cooled down and used careful point creation to break back for 2-2. Linette continued to play at a high level for the remainder of the set, but Sabalenka's weight of stroke allowed her to step it up and win the tiebreak.
In the second set, Sabalenka quickly took a double-break advantage and then persevered to fend off any potential tiebreakers. At 4-1, she held for 5-1 after fending off three break-back points, the third of which she saved with one of her six total aces. In the following encounter, Linette saved three match points as Sabalenka's mistake total increased once more. Sabalenka converted her fourth match point with a strong one-two punch, serving out the match at the first opportunity.
Sabalenka will face Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in a final who advanced to her second major final, defeating former No.1 Victoria Azarenka 7-6(4), 6-3 on Thursday.
"Overall I felt like I was handling her serve actually pretty well. Couple shots after that, I wasn't adjusting well. Some balls were coming slow. Some balls were coming faster. I felt like I wasn't really focusing on what I have to do. Kind of misjudged a lot of balls," WTA.com quoted Azarenka as saying.
"I couldn't get free points on my serve that easy like during the day when I played the matches. I knew that I need just to adjust. I was doing the correct things. It was just a matter to be more focused on these important moments. In the end, I just was playing point by point no matter score. Everything went well," Rybakina said.
Elena Rybakina advanced to her second major final on Thursday, defeating two-time winner and former World No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals here at the Rod Laver Arena.
Playing in her first Australian Open semifinal, Rybakina produced a stunning performance against Azarenka 7-6(4), 6-3 to clinch a spot in the final. Seeded No.22 in Melbourne, Rybakina will face either No.5 Aryna Sabalenka or Poland's Magda Linette on Saturday's final. Rybakina finished the one-hour and 41-minute match with 30 winners, including 9 aces, to 21 unforced errors. Azarenka hit 26 winners to 27 unforced errors.
Rybakina and Azarenka traded punches from the baseline in a high-calibre one-hour opening set until the former No. 1 broke first for a 3-1 advantage, breaking on an intriguing cat-and-mouse point at the net. After 24 minutes, the Wimbledon winner was up 4-3 after breaking back immediately and settling on serve.
After gaining some composure, Rybakina broke for a 5-3 advantage but was unable to win the set. With a running forehand down-the-line pass, Azarenka saved set point and broke to regain service. This time, Rybakina had to maintain her serve under pressure. Rybakina rescued her serve from 0-40 in the most important game of the set to hold a 6-5 lead.
Despite serving at 48 per cent, Rybakina won the set and the tiebreak with a flawless performance, finishing with 20 wins to Azarenka's 16 unforced mistakes. In the end, Azarenka had 13 unforced errors and 17 winners.
Rybakina established herself as a strong front-runner in the competition, having dropped just one set. She soon broke Azarenka and maintained her lead to take the second set 3-1 with a set in hand. Rybakina made a second break to take the lead 5-2 as Azarenka's serve started to deteriorate. A sixth double fault from Azarenka gave Rybakina a triple-break point and the Wimbledon champion converted after Azarenka's final shot landed in the net.
