Google News Roland Garros: Aryna Sabalenka, Karolina Muchova set clash of maiden semi-finalists!
by ABBEY JOHNSON
Aryna Sabalenka scored another impressive win at Roland Garros to take yet another step closer to the final. The world no. 2 dispatched Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 in their quarter-final match-up on Tuesday in an hour and 36 minutes.
When play started both Sabalenka and Svitolina went for their shots without any hesitations. Neither player saw a break point on her serve until the ninth game with the Ukrainian serving. An unforced error brought up the break point for the former world no.
3 and Sabalenka was quick to take advantage of it, with a winner. In the following game, Sabalenka captured the set on the first of the two set points she brought up. The beginning of the second set saw Svitolina save a break point in a lengthy service game en route to holding her serve.
The second game of the set brought up the first – and lone – break point on Sabalenka’s serve and Svitolina converted it to go up 2-0 in the set. The 28-year-old’s lead vanished after that as Sabalenka came back into the match, hitting winners on all parts of the court.
A second break on Svitolina’s serve in the fifth game was all the second seed needed as she served out the match on her serve, in the 10th game.
Roland Garros: Aryna Sabalenka takes it all against Elina Svitolina
Sabalenka had 30 winners, more than four times as many as Svitolina’s seven.
She also had 37 unforced errors, a little over thrice as many as her opponent’s 12. This was the third time the two had played each other and after this win, Sabalenka now leads their head-to-head, 2-1. In the semi-final, Sabalenka will play Karolina Muchova.
The Czech, who played the first quarter-final, got past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-2 in an hour and 38 minutes. Muchova had 21 winners to Pavlyuchenkova’s 16 and 15 unforced errors to the latter’s 29. For both Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Muchova, this is the first time in their career they’ve come this far at Roland Garros.
They’ve played each other only once before, way back in 2019 at the Zhuhai Open, with Sabalenka getting the win then. Photo Credit: The Tennis Letter Twitter