Can Anybody Beat Aryna Sabalenka?

It is looking like an incredibly difficult task to get the better of Aryna Sabalenka down under. She is now on a 12-match winning streak at the Australian Open. Sabalenka has been playing extremely well all tournament, still not losing a set, up to this point. Her latest victim is 9^th seed Barbora Krejcikova.

Aryna Sabalenka powered through Barbora Krejcikova. with a 6-2 6-3 win in the first match of the night session in Australia in a little over an hour. Hitting a total of 20 winners and 4 aces, the second seed was always in control from the beginning.

Aryna Sabalenka Advances

One of those winners included a forehand cross-court winner on break point at 1-1 to take an early lead. After this she never looked back breaking again at 3-1, eventually winning the set 6-2 with a hold of serve to love.

The second set was a similar story, holding serve to love once again in her opening service game. With more winners flowing from the racket of the second seed, she once again broke the Czechs at 1-1 as well as at 3-1 to take a 4-1 lead.

Despite Krejcikova’s best attempt to make a comeback, winning the next two games, the relentlessness of Sabalenka proved too much to handle, with the defending champion taking the set 6-3.

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Despite this being a comfortable victory, this was still the longest match of the tournament for Sabalenka at 71 minutes, with two of her matches not even taking an hour to finish off. With all of her wins so far seeming effortless, it’s no surprise that most see Sabalenka as a heavy favourite to win the title in Australia this year.

However, her next match will not be easy, with her semi-final opponent being US Open champion Coco Gauff. The 19-year-old defeated Sabalenka in the final of the 2023 US Open and has also looked in good form this fortnight dropping a single set all tournament.

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This was in her quarter-final win against Marta Kostyuk 7-6 6-7 6-2. With all the top seeds in the top half of the women’s draw being eliminated, after shock losses to Swiatek, Rybakina and Pegula, a lot would say the semi-final with Coco will be the toughest test in Sabalenka’s title defence.

However, The main question being asked during this women’s Australian Open is can anybody beat the defending champion, Aryna Sabalenka?

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