Melbourne, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka She was one win away from becoming the first woman since 1999 to win three consecutive Australian Open titles, and recovered from a slow start to defeat her good friend. Paola Badosa 6-4 and 6-2 on Thursday and return to the final.
“I feel goosebumps,” said top seed Sabalenka, who will face the second seed. “I’m very proud of myself. I’m proud of my team because we were able to put ourselves in such a position.” Iga Swatic Or number 19 Madison keys For the championship. “If I could put myself in history [books]It will mean a lot. “It would mean the world to me.”
Just 10 minutes after qualifying for the semi-finals, Sabalenka fell behind on the break, trailing 2-0 and 40 points. She would make unintended mistakes, or shake her head or point to her entourage in the stands after many of them.
But the 26-year-old Belarusian figured things out quickly, especially after the retractable roof of Rod Laver Arena was closed late in the first set due to rain. She straightened her strokes, often using huge comebacks and groundstrokes to overcome 11th-seeded Badosa, who eliminated No. 3. Coco Jouf on Tuesday to reach her first semifinal.
Sabalenka won four straight games and five of six to take a 5-3 lead and quickly finished that set with a 114 mph ace. She broke serve to lead 2-1 in the second set thanks to two double faults from Badosa and then took the lead again 4-1.
“She started being very aggressive,” said Badosa, who considered retiring last year due to a stress fracture in her back. “Everything was going well. Everything she did today, touched today, could turn out to be gold.” “If she plays like that, I mean we can actually give her the trophy.”
Key stat: Sabalenka finished with a 32-11 win.
It is this kind of excellence that helped Sabalenka win her first major title at Melbourne Park in 2023, and she has since added two more titles: in Australia a year ago and at the US Open in September.
The last woman to reach three consecutive finals at the first Grand Slam of the year was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015 to 2017. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman to three-peat, doing so from 1997 to 1999.
Men’s semi-finals on Friday: Novak Djokovic vs Alexander Zverevfollowed by the defending champion Yannick Siner vs Ben Shelton. Women’s final on Saturday. Guys it’s Sunday.
Sabalenka and Badosa did their best to avoid eye contact for much of the evening, whether at the net during the coin toss or when they met at the switch.
The only exception came at the beginning of the second set when Badosa fell on the court and threw her racket away to avoid injury. Badosa immediately put up a thumbs up to show she was fine. When the replay was shown on the stadium’s video screens, Sabalenka pantomimed to indicate that Badosa had fallen, and they both smiled.
When the match ended, they met at the net for a long hug.
During Sabalenka’s on-court interview, she joked that she might take Badosa – who was sitting in the lobby at the time with her head bowed – on a shopping spree to make amends and pay for the Spaniard.
“After two matches against each other, we talked and decided to put it aside,” said Sabalenka, who leads the head-to-head series 6-2. “She wanted it so bad. We both wanted it so bad. … No matter what happens on the court, we’ll be friends after our games.”
Sabalenka paused before joking, “I hope she’ll still be my friend. I’m sure she’ll hate me for the next hour or day. I’m okay with that.”
On her way to the locker room, Sabalenka stopped to console Badosa.
Later, when she learned what Sabalenka said about paying the bill in some stores, Badosa said: “It will be very expensive, because now I think she has doubled the prize money. So she will not have a problem.”
