When Aryna Sabalenka first emerged on the professional tennis circuit, it would have been an understatement to describe her as inconsistent. She was raw and incredibly volatile, blessed with so much power that she could only occasionally keep her under control. At times, it seemed as if Sabalenka was just as likely to hit the back fence as she was to successfully outplay an opponent.
The evolution of the Belarusian in recent years has been remarkable and she has gradually become one of the most reliable players at the biggest tournaments in the world. She continued to show her consistency on Wednesday night in New York by making one of the most anticipated matches of the tournament so far ridiculous, beating Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen 6-1, 6-2 and returning to the semifinals of the US Open.
Since the 2022 US Open, Sabalenka has reached the semifinals or better in seven of the last eight Grand Slam tournaments she has competed in, with the exception of a quarterfinal at the French Open. She was a finalist in New York last year, where she lost to Coco Gauff, but Sabalenka has now reached the semifinals or better at the US Open in each of the last four years, the first player to do so since Serena Williams between 2011 and 2016.
“Honestly, I didn’t even know how to deal with that pressure before,” Sabalenka said of her many semifinals. “On those days off, I would think too much about tennis and waste my energy on it.
“These days I try to take it easier. [It’s] just tennis, you know. I just try to show my best tennis every time and just try to fight for it, and I know that whatever happens on the court, I’m going to fight for it. If it’s meant to be, it’s going to happen.”
This run is particularly significant after a difficult period this summer. Sabalenka had reached six consecutive Grand Slam semifinals before clearly struggling with illness during her quarterfinal loss to Mirra Andreeva at the French Open. Then at Wimbledon, Sabalenka was forced to withdraw on the eve of the tournament with a shoulder injury and has had to gradually regain her form during the North American hardcourt swing. Between winning the Cincinnati Open and returning to the semifinals of the US Open, she has regained her best form.
Despite how reliable and imperious Sabalenka has become in the big tournaments, this was a huge disappointment for Zheng as she failed to really put Sabalenka under pressure, as was the case in their Australian Open final at the start of the year. While Zheng struggled after her first Grand Slam final, she played with a remarkable confidence in New York following her triumph in Paris and swirling celebrations in China.
Zheng was in particularly devastating serving form, with 49 aces in four matches and 80% of her first serves in. But her service movement is also unconventional and halting, meaning her serve is devastating when it comes in, but her first serve percentage is often low. She finished with 44% first serves in.
In her opening service game, Zheng missed five of her first six first serves, allowing Sabalenka to rip up her second serve and break her straight away. That game set the tone for the rest of the match, as Sabalenka struck the ball beautifully from both wings, rushing Zheng’s big shots with her immense weight of shot and depth, serving extremely well and remaining laser-focused until the end.
Even the announcement that Roger Federer was in the audience, and the subsequent standing ovation he received, couldn’t deter Sabalenka’s attention. “I thought, ‘Okay, I have to play my best tennis so he enjoys it,'” Sabalenka said. “I have to show my skills, you know, slicing skills, coming to the net and all that stuff. That was a nice moment. Nice to see him here.”
While this was a disappointing performance from Zheng, there are some extenuating circumstances for the 21-year-old. She has reason to be frustrated with the tournament’s organization after her epic, high-stakes battle with Donna Vekic, a rematch of the Olympic final, ended at 2:15 a.m. Monday morning in the last women’s match in US Open history. Zheng said the late night had a significant impact on her preparations, as she wasn’t able to sleep until 5 a.m. Tuesday.
“Of course it has an influence [me] a lot,” she said. “Especially after I finished the game at 2:30 in the morning, I couldn’t sleep. That affected [me as] I couldn’t train yesterday because I felt awful yesterday. I couldn’t wake up. I even wanted to play tennis, but I feel like I can’t.”
Sabalenka will now face 13th seed Emma Navarro after the American reached her first Grand Slam semifinal with a 6-2, 7-5 win over Spain’s Paula Badosa. Against Gauff, 13th seed Navarro once again produced an extremely solid and polished performance under pressure, maintaining excellent depth and shot tolerance on both groundstrokes in the decisive moments. After trailing 1-5 in the second set, Navarro won six games in a row against a poor Badosa.
Navarro is the daughter of billionaire businessman Ben Navarro, who owns Credit One Bank, meaning that the final two American women in the draw, Navarro and Pegula, are both children of billionaires. After her win, Navarro thanked her father:
“I think he saw a vision from the time I was very young,” she said. “He knew that I might have a little bit of ADHD or something, to be in a classroom or a 9 to 5 [job]. He saw something in me at a young age. So thank you dad for sending me on this journey.”
Before she knew whether she would face Sabalenka or Zheng, Navarro reflected on her criticism of Zheng after their match at the Olympics. She had told Zheng during their handshake that she disrespected her, before later describing her as “throat-through-the-neck,” which some tennis fans have used as a complimentary nickname for Zheng. Navarro has never really explained what her problem with Zheng is.
“I don’t want to get too deep into it, but I think that during that game and on the practice court and the last few times that I’ve played her, because we’ve played each other since we were juniors, I felt a little bit disrespected by her,” she said. “I don’t want to dwell on it too much. But I think she didn’t necessarily treat me or the sport with respect. That’s why I said what I said after the game.”