Why Aryna Sabalenka is the AO boss’ new favourite player

Aryna Sabalenka just became Australian Open tournament boss Craig Tiley’s favourite player.

The defending champion’s quarter-final against 2021 Roland-Garros winner Barbora Krejcikova did not start until 9pm – two hours late – and with a men’s last-eight clash still to come, she did Tiley a huge favour by thrashing the Czech 6-2, 6-3 in 71 minutes.

Aryna Sabalenka in full flight during her match against Barbora Krejcikova.Credit: Getty

Sabalenka revealed afterwards that discussions took place about the possibility of the match switching to a different court – potentially Margaret Court Arena – if Novak Djokovic’s clash with Taylor Fritz had extended to a fifth set. That scenario never played out once 10-time champion Djokovic sealed a four-set victory over Fritz.

“I’m happy that it wasn’t that long [of a] match, and we were able to play on the Rod Laver Arena,” Sabalenka said. “I think for the quarter-finals match, it’s important to be played on such a big stadium.

“I mean, of course, it would be much better to start at 7pm, but you cannot control other matches. They played for long, but I just tried to focus on myself and just wait a bit longer. It’s not that bad ... we have to adapt quickly to the conditions. I think we did it well.”

Sabalenka dropped serve for just the second and third times in the tournament in a wayward sixth game of each set, but was up a double break on both occasions and otherwise in a menacing mood.

She has dropped a grand total of 16 games in five matches and this was actually her longest one yet as she reached a fifth-straight grand slam semi-final.

“I’m super happy to get through this match. Barbora is a tough opponent, and we always had really tough battles against each other,” Sabalenka said.

“I think my mindset that I’m not getting crazy on court [has made a big difference] – I’m not rushing things. I’m just playing point by point, and that’s it, and fighting for every point without overthinking about my dreams,
about what I want to do, about how many slams I want to win and all that stuff.

Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic lost in staight sets to defending champion Aryna Sabalenka.Credit: AP

“I was able to separate myself from that kind of mentality and just start focusing on myself and focusing on things I can improve, and I can get better in, and what I actually have to do to win every match I play.”

Krejcikova was under siege from her second service game, with a thunderous Sabalenka backhand return leaving her wobbling before the Belarusian ball-basher whacked a forehand winner to grab the first of her six breaks for the night.

No player in the women’s draw has been more impressive, or dominant, this fortnight than Sabalenka, who will next get the chance to exact revenge against American No.4 seed Coco Gauff for her US Open final loss.

“I love it. After US Open, I really wanted that revenge … it’s always great battles against Coco, with really great fights,” Sabalenka said. “I’m happy to play her, and I’m super excited to play that semi-final match.”

The powerful world No.2, the highest-ranked player left after Iga Swiatek’s shock third-round loss to Czech teenager Linda Noskova, hammered 20 winners to Krejcikova’s six, and committed 11 fewer unforced errors.

Gauff had also not dropped a set until her quarter-final against Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk earlier on Tuesday, but turned in a self-professed C-grade performance with triple as many unforced errors as winners (17-51) as she escaped in a three-hour, three-setter.

That sort of form will not get the Sabalenka job done, but she has won four of their six meetings and said post-match she hoped she had “got the bad match out of the way”.

“It’s always a tough match with her,” Gauff said of Sabalenka. “I think she’s playing well this tournament [and] obviously, that US Open final was tough.”

Stirring Coco win sets up US Open final rematch

US Open champion Coco Gauff has done her bit to lock in a rematch of the New York final, outlasting Marta Kostyuk in a roller-coaster Australian Open quarter-final on Tuesday.

In a contest involving 16 breaks of serve and a series of fightbacks from both players – none better than Gauff’s surge from 1-5 down in the first set – it was the American who prevailed, 7-6 (8-6), 6-7 (3-7), 6-2, after failing to serve the match out in the second set.

Coco Gauff crunches a forehand in her quarter-final against Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk on Tuesday.Credit: Chris Hopkins

It was a somewhat anticlimactic finish, given it took almost two-and-a-half hours to get through a seesawing opening two sets, although Gauff was again unable to clinch the match on serve at 5-0 in the final set.

She finally advanced to the semi-finals with a love hold, at her third attempt, after three hours and eight minutes on Rod Laver Arena, to book a semi-final against either defending champion Aryna Sabalenka or ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova. That pair will play their quarter-final on the same court on Tuesday night.

This is the third time Gauff has reached the final four at a grand slam, including making the 2022 Roland Garros decider.

“It was a fight. I think today was definitely a ‘C’ game, so I didn’t play my best tennis, but I’m really proud that I was able to get through today’s match,” Gauff said.

“Hopefully, I got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better … today was frustrating because I knew how I needed to play. I just couldn’t execute. Eventually, I was able to find it, which is what I’m proud of.”

The 19-year-old fourth seed came from a set down to beat world No.2 Sabalenka in last year’s US Open final and looms as the major stumbling block to the Belarusian’s hopes of back-to-back titles at Melbourne Park.

Gauff leads Sabalenka 4-2 head-to-head, but lost her only clash with Krejcikova in straight sets in the 2021 Roland-Garros quarter-finals on the Czech’s path to the title.

“I think either way, it’s going to be a tough match,” Gauff said. “These are the later stages of a grand slam, and for both of them, I think they’re in good form.”

The first set between Gauff and Kostyuk was a wild affair, with the American looking the better player early before the Ukrainian hung tough, then surged to a 5-1 lead, only to collapse with a one-set lead in sight.

The world No.37 dropped serve three straight times – either side of earning a set point on Gauff’s serve – but broke back to force a tie-breaker, which was every bit as topsy-turvy as the match had been.

Gauff led 4-2 and 5-4 with a serve to come, but it was Kostyuk who had another set point first, which also went begging, before the former grabbed an opening set that featured a combined 50 unforced errors.

That proved critical in the end as Kostyuk, who hit 39 winners to Gauff’s 17, rallied from 3-5 down in the second set to send their quarter-final to a third set.

That was the first set Gauff dropped for the tournament, but it was almost one-way traffic once she recovered from 15-40 in the first game of the final set.

“I was playing not great. I was just missing everything on both wings and not serving well,” she said.

“I was just trying to win one extra game … I was just, like, ‘Let me make it competitive’. Sometimes when you’re down 5-1, you’re not expecting to win the set. I believe every point, every game matters, and eventually
the score started to get closer.”

The defeat ends Kostyuk’s career-best run at a major, after she made her first grand slam splash as a 15-year-old qualifier at the 2018 Australian Open, where she made the round of 32.

The 21-year-old is projected to rise to a career-high WTA ranking inside the top 30.

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