The 2023 Australian Open finalists Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina both looked impressive in booking their last eight dates in Brisbane.
Sabalenka dropped the first game in her match against Zhu Lin at the Brisbane International, but then came back to win 12 straight in defeating the Chinese player 6-1, 6-0.
The result was the 13th consecutive victory for Sabalenka in Australia as she bids to defend her title in Melbourne and keep the heat on world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
Zhu’s resistance to the power of Sabalenka would only last as long as the first game which took nine minutes to complete. After that, Sabalenka didn’t give her a sniff.
Sabalenka won’t be getting ahead of herself and she gave little away but was upbeat after the match.
“Yeah, it’s been an amazing tournament for me,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview. “Of course I’m super happy with the level, with the win today. I feel I’m going to do really well here.”
Sabalenka has appeared terrifically sharp in her two matches so far this week and the 25-year-old has produced a total of 17 aces, alongside three double faults and has converted 10 of 16 break points.
The defending champion at the Australian Open is out to emulate her strong start to the 2023 season when she won in Adelaide prior to rolling through the Grand Slam to claim her maiden Major.
“I have really amazing, amazing memories from last year,” she said before the tournament. “I really did a great job in the pre-season, make sure I have chances to replicate the same results I did last season.”
Earlier in Brisbane Elena Rybakina steamrolled over Elise Mertens rather coincidentally by the same scoreline of 6-1, 6-0.
Rybakina improves to 2-0 for the new year with a win that was nearly flawless, she claimed 56 of 84 points and broke Mertens’ serve five times.
The top three seeds have all won through to the quarter-finals and half of the eight players left in the draw have won at least one Grand Slam title.
If form and seeding holds true, we will see the two Australian Open finalists from a year ago facing off in the final in Brisbane as the WTA 500 event returns to the schedule.
Sabalenka will go on to meet Russian Daria Kasatkina in Friday’s quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Rybakina is also set to take on a Russian opponent after No 11 seed Anastasia Potapova, claimed a three-set win over No 6 and compatriot Veronika Kudermetova.
