2023-09-06 20:57:00
The 20-year-old Qinwen Zheng was in the last eight of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time and had little to oppose the force of the Belarusian.
Sabalenka handed in a solid performance, one of which was mainly benefiting from her strong serve time and time again – the 25-year-old scored 88 percent of the points when the first serve was in the field.
In the first set, the 20-year-old found no recipe at all against her opponent’s powerful game, her weak serve rate played into Sabalenka’s cards. In the second round, Zheng improved, but it wasn’t enough.
“I definitely played great tennis today,” said Sabalenka: “I still have a lot to do in New York this year and will only think about becoming number 1 after the US Open.”
Sabalenka before fear hurdle semifinals
Sabalenka didn’t allow a single break chance throughout the match. In addition, the Belarusian convinced with a strong quota at the net (8/9). After 73 minutes, she converted her second match point and thus advanced to a major semifinal for the fifth year in a row.
Sabalenka was in the semifinals in New York in 2021 and 2022, but that was the end of the line. Most recently, she also failed in the semifinals of the French Open and Wimbledon. She won her first Grand Slam title in Melbourne in January.
Sabalenka maintained her impressive record in the quarter-finals at Grand Slams with her success against Zheng, winning all seven appearances in the round of eight. Zheng missed out on becoming the third Chinese woman to reach the semifinals in New York after Peng Shuai (2014) and Li Na (2013).
Sabalenka extends lead over Swiatek
After the tournament, Sabalenka will be number one in women’s tennis for the first time. With the semi-finals, she already has 8746 points on her account.
Poland’s Iga Swiatek, who has been at the top of the world rankings for 75 consecutive weeks, has 8195. If Sabalenka wins the tournament, it could reach 9966 points.
In the semi-finals on Thursday, she meets Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova (No. 9) from the Czech Republic or the American Madison Keys (No. 17), who face each other in the night session (live scoring).
The next opponent could be Zverev, who would have to defeat the defending champion and world number one Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday night (second match after 1 a.m. CEST/Sportdeutschland.TV). The second semi-final is contested by Grand Slam record champion Novak Djokovic from Serbia and the American Ben Shelton.
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