MELBOURNE, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka continued her charge towards a third-straight Australian Open title by overwhelming her “soulmate” Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 in Thursday evening’s semifinal.
Sabalenka and Badosa are extremely close friends and shared a warm embrace at the end of the match, but the world No. 1 was ultimately too strong, winning a 20th-straight match at Melbourne Park. The victory sets up the tantalizing possibility of a final between Sabalenka and world No. 2 Iga Swiatek, which would be only the pair’s second meeting at a Grand Slam and their first in a major final.
This was an ultimately comfortable victory, but as with all her matches at this year’s Australian Open, Sabalenka was up and down in the early stages. She made three forehand errors to immediately lose her serve, and was a point away from being 3-0 down after a couple more loose forehands. Over the course of those two games, four straight points ended with a Sabalenka forehand error. One of her biggest weapons was badly misfiring, but she found the shot just in time to break back for 2-1.
Paula Badosa was pulled all over the court by Sabalenka’s use of angles and dropshots. (Quinn Rooney / Getty Images)
Badosa, who upset Coco Gauff to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal, started the match freely and with authority, despite benefiting from Sabalenka’s early string of errors. Once the Belarusian settled, Badosa was on the back foot for the majority of points, either pinned behind the baseline or being pulled up the court by Sabalenka’s dropshots. The Spaniard looked uncomfortable when playing at the net without having planned to get there herself, and Sabalenka broke at 3-2 to swing the first set her way.
The roof was closed at this point as light rain started to fall, and the indoor conditions made for a more controlled, less exciting end to the set. With the variables of the elements taken away, there were no more breaks or even break points and both players settled into more of a rhythm. That helped Sabalenka, who overcame her erratic start to close the opener out 6-4. During the first set, all nine returning points won by Badosa were from Sabalenka errors, seven of them unforced.
There was a nice moment early on in the second set when Badosa fell to the floor while chasing a forehand and then gave a thumbs up while lying prone behind the baseline. Both players giggled when they caught the other’s eye, a rare reminder of their off-court friendship.
“We both want it badly,” Sabalenka said on court. “She will hate me for the next hour or so.”
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Badosa’s mood was decidedly darker soon after when she hit consecutive double faults to gift her opponent a break for 2-1. Another double fault in her next service game presented Sabalenka with a point for a double break, which she took to move up 4-1. The match was effectively over at this point, with Sabalenka tightening up her service games in the second set as Badosa would have feared to win in one hour and 26 minutes.
Sabalenka moves on to face Swiatek or No. 19 seed Madison Keys, with the chance of a first Australian Open threepeat on the women’s side since Martina Hingis in 1999.
(Top photo: Adrian Dennis / AFP via Getty Images)
