The Belarusian leaves 5 games to the Chinese, confirms the leadership in the standings and continues the hunt for the second Slam
It will be the certainty of knowing that on Monday she will be the new number 1 in the world, it will be the New York air which is generally good for her, but Aryna Sabalenka seems truly unplayable. The Belarusian crashes the Chinese Qinwen Zheng by finding the third consecutive semifinal at the US Open. Aryna, who hasn’t dropped a set in the entire tournament, proves to be in another league than a player who achieved her career-best Grand Slam result with this quarterfinal.
THE RACE
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Crazy start of the Belarusian who wins five consecutive games in about twenty minutes, conceding only one point on her turn to serve. Zheng has a jolt in the sixth game, winning the only game of his set to cancel but yields in the next game, collecting a clear 6-1. Perhaps, on a mental level, the Chinese paid for the great feat of the previous round with Ons Jabeur, after eliminating our Lucia Bronzetti in a game in which she went one step away from elimination. In the second set, Zheng wakes up and begins to raise the percentage of firsts on the court. The Chinese serves better and in fact she holds serve easily for three consecutive games. Sabalenka continues to concede crumbs in batting and decides to accelerate in the seventh game. The Belarusian takes advantage of a break point that is worth half a match point. The real ball for the match comes in the ninth game but Zheng jumps and with three consecutive points she extends the match. Aryna, when she has to serve for the match, doesn’t tremble and closes 6-1, 6-4 in about an hour and ten minutes. Sabalenka will play her seventh semifinal at a Grand Slam knowing that on five of her first six occasions she has stopped at the penultimate hurdle. The only time she made it through a semifinal was at this year’s Australian Open where she then triumphed.