US Open: Sabalenka cruises into quarter-finals for eighth Grand Slam in a row

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, moved into the quarter-finals of the US Open by beating Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 33 seed, 6-2, 6-4 in New York on Sunday night.

The pair are former doubles partners and won the 2019 US Open and 2021 Australian Open women’s doubles titles before the Belarusian decided to focus on singles.

The win sees Sabalenka through to her fourth consecutive US Open quarter-final, and 10th time overall reaching the last eight of a Grand Slam.

Also, it was the eighth consecutive time that Sabalenka has reached the last eight when she has played a Grand Slam. Starting from the 2022 US Open to this year’s edition, Sabalenka has won two Majors (both at the Australian Open), reached one Slam final, three Slam semi-finals and now two Slam quarter-finals. She missed this year’s Wimbledon Championships due to injury.

Sabalenka’s forehand was the Belarusian’s primary weapon as she pillaged 41 winners over the course of the one-hour, 37-minute match. Afterwards, she spoke about the speeds she has been recording on the forehand side:

“I saw my stats on my forehand and I actually can’t believe it’s that fast. It felt even kind of uncomfortable being at the top and even hitting harder than guys. That’s a really interesting stat.”

Sabalenka, ranked No 2, will face Chinese Qinwen Zheng, the No 7 seed, next.

The Belarusian won against Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon (6-3, 6-3), Italian Lucia Bronzetti (6-3, 6-1) and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 29 seed (2-6, 6-1, 6-2) earlier in the tournament.

In the previous rounds, Mertens, ranked No 35, won against Russian Veronika Kudermetova (3-6, 6-4, 6-3), Australian Ajla Tomljanovic (6-3, 6-2) and American Madison Keys, the No 14 seed (6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4).

New York (Grand Slam), other round of 16 results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 75.000.000):

• Emma Navarro (13) beat Coco Gauff (3): 6-3, 4-6, 6-3
• Paula Badosa (26) beat Yafan Wang: 6-1, 6-2
• Iga Swiatek vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Caroline Wozniacki vs. Beatriz Haddad Maia
• Diana Shnaider vs. Jessica Pegula
• Karolina Muchova vs. Jasmine Paolini

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