Sabalenka reaches the Australian Open semifinals as she seeks a third title in a row

Aryna Sabalenka’s bid for a third consecutive Australian Open championship will continue after she got past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a surprisingly difficult quarterfinal yesterday night.

The No. 1-ranked Sabalenka has now won 19 matches in a row at Melbourne Park and will face her good friend, No. 11 seed Paula Badosa, in the semifinals tomorrow

Sabalenka had run her set streak to 25 at the place — dating all the way to the 2023 final — when she grabbed the opener against 2021 French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova. But Sabalenka had a hard time harnessing her intimidating strokes on a windy evening in Rod Laver Arena until doing so down the stretch and collecting the last three games after the third set was tied at 3-all.

“Honestly,” Sabalenka said, “I was just praying.”

She won her first major championship at Melbourne Park in 2023, then added another last January, before raising her total to three Grand Slam trophies at the U.S. Open last September.

The last woman to win the Australian Open three straight years was Martina Hingis from 1997 to 1999.

Badosa’s 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 3 Coco Gauff in the day’s first quarterfinal was surprising, sure, but nothing compared with how significant a win by No. 27 Pavlyuchenkova over Sabalenka would have been.

And that certainly seemed like it might occur for much of the second set and at least the start of the third. Instead, Pavlyuchenkova fell to 1-8 in Grand Slam quarterfinals, including 0-4 at the Australian Open.

So how did Pavlyuchenkova nearly pull off the win this time?

By handling Sabalenka’s big serves, first and foremost, reading them well and delivering deep returns. It took a bit of time to find the range, but once she did, Pavlyuchenkova was nearly perfect: After Sabalenka held all four of her service games in the first set, she lost five of the next six.

Pavlyuchenkova also produced stinging groundstrokes that equaled her powerful opponent’s for much of the contest. And by showing off some talent with her volleying, claiming eight of the first nine points she finished at the net — one even appeared to be a sort of mistake but landed in, eliciting a wry smile from Pavlyuchenkova.

As things stayed tight, Sabalenka grew frustrated, her shot-accompanying grunts and post-point screams growing louder. After getting broken to fall behind 1-0 in the third set, she hit her racket against the blue court.

Eventually, though, she was able to smile and look ahead to trying to return to the final with one more victory. HOWARD FENDRICH, MELBOURNE, MDT/AP