aryna sabalenka
BRISBANE, Australia — This rematch between the Australian Open finalists was lopsided and Aryna Sabalenka flipped the outcome with a straight-sets win over Madison Keys.
Top-ranked Sabalenka broke Keys’ in five straight service games on the way to a 6-3, 6-3 win in 1 1/2 hours Friday to reach the semifinals of the Brisbane International, an important tuneup event for the Australian Open which begins Jan. 18.
“Super happy to get through this difficult match,” Sabalenka said. “I didn’t really have the throwback to the Australian Open last year, to be honest.
“I know that I lost in Australia against her and it’s a big motivation, of course, to go out and get the win. But I always look into the (next) match as like a new match against a new player. That’s my approach.”
The defending Brisbane champion will next take on 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova, who had a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Elena Rybakina to end a 13-match streak for the No. 3 seed.
Muchova has the better of the career head-to-head meetings against 2022 Wimbledon winner Rybakina, who beat Sabalenka to win the WTA Finals championship in November. Muchova also has a 3-1 record against No. 1 Sabalenka.
“Doesn’t matter if I’m the one who is leading head-to-head or I’m the one who is losing — I don’t care,” Sabalenka said, adding that her focus is to control the kinds of emotions that derailed her sometimes when she was younger.
“In the past, I could lose a match because I’d be so frustrated. Now I’m just trying to move on like, ‘OK, whatever,’” she said. “That’s my mentality nowadays and I feel like it’s been working well for me.”
On a warm subtropical afternoon on Pat Rafter Arena, Sabalenka and Keys each had early breakpoint chances but weren’t able to convert.
Sabalenka got the first service break in the seventh game for a 4-3 lead and went on a roll, winning six of the next seven games. Keys broke serve to open the second set in the only interruption in that sequence.
The 30-year-old American faced immense pressure on her second serve, with Sabalenka pouncing on anything short or at lower speed, and finished the match with eight double-faults and won just one-third of points on her second serve.
Keys managed to save two match points in the eighth game of the second set but it barely slowed down Sabalenka, who served out at love.
Sabalenka has two straight-set wins over Keys — the other was 6-0, 6-1 at Indian Wells — since that loss at Melbourne Park almost 12 months ago. She also reached the French Open final, won the U.S. Open and finished the competitive season with a runner-up finish at the WTA Finals.
Earlier at the Brisbane tournament, she described the season schedule as “insane” and said she’ll risk fines in order to skip tournaments to avoid injuries or burnout, but still is aiming to get as many matches in as possible before the season’s first major.
“I’m just trying to get some matches, get some wins,” she said, “and get the rhythm going again.”