Australian Open 2024: Aryna Sabalenka beats Barbora Krejcikova, storms into 6th successive semis

World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka kept alive her hopes of defending her Australian Open women’s singles title after beating Barbora Krejcikova in straight sets in the quarterfinal on Tuesday, January 23 at the Rod Laver Arena. It took the Belarusian star an hour and 11 minutes to beat Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3.

Australian Open 2024, Day 10, Live Updates

Sabalenka also also made her way through to a Grand Slam semi-final for the sixth time in a row. Sabalenka is yet to drop a single set in the ongoing hard-court major at Melbourne Park and has served three bagels, including two against Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko in the third round.

Against Krejcikova, Sabalenka again showed why she is deemed as one of the best in the business. She pulled off 20 winners, 14 more than Krejcikova, and four aces to get the better of her opponent from the Czech Republic.

Krejcikova was let down by the fact that she made 24 unforced errors and had a winning percentage of 20 (4 out of 20) from her second serves. The three double faults that she made did not help Krejcikova by any means. She won two breaks of serve, but conceded seven of them.

Sabalenka will next be up against US Open 2023 champion Coco Gauff in the semi-final. The duo has faced each other six times and Gauff is leading the head-to-head count 4-2. It’s also a rematch of the US Open last year when Gauff rallied back from a set down to beat Sabalenka 2-6, 6-3, 6-2.

The upcoming match will also mark the second time Sabalenka and Gauff will face in a Grand Slam. Gauff had to fight out of her skin in the quarterfinal match before beating Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2 in three hours and eight minutes.

Sabalenka will be in for a tough task in the semis as Gauff has won all his 10 matches thus far in 2024, including the ASB Classic in Auckland.