IMAGES from Day 10 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Tuesday.
Sabalenka demolishes Krejcikova
Aryna Sabalenka overpowered Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3 in a brutally swift quarter-final on Tuesday to keep her Australian Open title defence firmly on course and set up a showdown with US Open champion Coco Gauff.
After the first two quarter-finals on Rod Laver Arena had run for a combined seven hours, Sabalenka came out firing as if to ensure that the court schedule would be back on track before the final clash of the day.
The Belarusian blew the former French Open champion off the court at times and extended her winning streak at Melbourne Park to 12 matches as she reached the last four having conceded only 16 games.
"I think it was a really great match today. I played really great tennis and I really hope I can just keep playing that way or even better as I always say," she said.
"I've been working so hard the last year and this pre-season. I think it's all about hard work. Give it all in the practice court so you can be ready for the matches as good as you can."
The second seed hammered her serves and groundstrokes over the net accompanied by her trademark yelps, breaking the ninth seeded Czech three times to only the one hiccup herself and clinching the first set after little more than 30 minutes.
Sabalenka rattled through her first service game of the second set to love on the back of a couple of piledriver forehands and was soon feasting on the Czech's second serve to break her opponent again.
The atmosphere on the main showcourt was subdued as the one-sided contest continued with almost everything Krejcikova tried to do to change the course of the match meeting with a howitzer of a response from the other side of the net.
In the sixth game, Krejcikova again managed to break Sabalenka - only the second player to do so at Melbourne Park this year - and followed that up with a hold to reduce the deficit to 4-3.
Krejcikova had lost the opening set in three of her four matches on the way to the last eight but there was to be no way back against the Belarusian.
Sabalenka held with a couple of huge serves then broke the Czech to love to set up the semi-final date with American Gauff, who denied Sabalenka her second Grand Slam crown in the final at Flushing Meadows last September.
With all but one of the seeds in the top half of draw, including world number one Iga Swiatek, having already departed, the meeting between Sabalenka and Gauff could go a long way to deciding who takes home the Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy.
Sinner ousts Rublev to enter semis
Italy's Jannik Sinner set up a mouth-watering Australian Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic as he fought off Andrey Rublev in a late-night duel at Melbourne Park on Tuesday.
The fourth seed showed patience and resilience to claim a 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3 win against the Russian who now owns the ugly record of 10 defeats out of 10 in Grand Slam quarter-finals.
Sinner, who beat world number one Djokovic twice at the end of 2023, has reached the semi-finals without dropping a set.
Fifth seed Rublev, as he always does, threw the kitchen sink at his opponent but was left with the same old sinking feeling as he consistently failed to take his chances, especially when leading the second set tiebreak 5-1.
Sinner hit back in majestic fashion to reel off the six points in a row to establish a two-set lead and that proved pivotal as Rublev's resolve began to crumble.
The Russian wore a world-weary expression in the third set and dropped serve to hand Sinner a 4-2 lead and the clean-hitting Italian duly closed out a comfortable win at nearly 1.30am local time to reach his first Australian Open semi-final.
The 22-year-old Sinner will take heart for his forthcoming battle with 10-time champion Djokovic on Friday having beaten him at the ATP Finals and in the Davis Cup Finals in November.
"I'm really lucky to be facing the world number one in the semi-finals," Sinner, who lost to Djokovic at Wimbledon last year in his maiden Grand Slam semi-final, said on court.
"It's going to be tough but the only thing I can control is that I'll fight 100% for every ball and see what happens."
Djokovic extinguishes Fritz fire to make semis
Novak Djokovic continued his dominance over Taylor Fritz but not before a big test as he sealed a 7-6 (3), 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over the 12th-seeded American on a steamy Tuesday at the Australian Open to move into a record-extending 48th Grand Slam semi-final.
The 36-year-old defending champion had beaten Fritz in all eight of their previous meetings, including a five-sets win at Melbourne Park in 2021 and a crushing victory at the US Open last year.
But Djokovic has taken his time to get going at this year's tournament as he seeks an 11th title and 25th major to surpass Margaret Court's haul, and the top-seeded Serb was unable to break in a marathon first game that had nine deuces.
Fritz saved eight break points and went toe to toe with his opponent in energy sapping conditions before setting up two set points but Djokovic saved them both to force a tiebreak, where he took his level up a few notches.
The Serb cupped his ear as the crowd roared when he fired a superb cross-court winner to earn five set points and bagged the early lead in the contest after 84 minutes.
Fritz broke early in the next set and bailed himself out of trouble several times with stinging backhand winners as Djokovic looked to respond, but the 26-year-old American held firm and drew level at one set all with a comfortable hold.
Djokovic cooled off by placing ice packs on his head in the third set but he was only comfortable after finally breaking his opponent on his 16th attempt en route to a 2-0 lead, which gave him the platform to push on and win the set.
Fritz appeared to struggle with his movement at times in the fourth set and Djokovic moved in for the kill to break in the sixth game before fending off a comeback attempt from Fritz to prevail.
US Open champion Coco Gauff came through a huge test at the hands of Ukrainian world number 37 Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (6), 6-7 (3), 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time on Tuesday.
The fourth-seeded American will rarely play as badly and still progress but prevailed after more than three hours on a blistering hot Rod Laver Arena to fulfil her coach Brad Gilbert's famous maxim by "Winning Ugly".
"I'm really proud of the fight I showed today, Marta's a tough opponent, every time we play it's a tough match," she said.
"Yeah, I really fought and left it all out on the court today."
Gauff, playing her final Grand Slam as a teenager, had swept into the last eight on a nine-match winning streak as she looked to back up her first major success in New York last year.
Kostyuk got right in the American's face from the off, however, and stormed to a 5-1 lead, serving twice for the opening set as well holding a set point on Gauff's serve.
The 19-year-old American knew she was up against it and, problem-solving on her feet, battled her way back into the contest by rattling off five successive games to serve for the set herself.
"I was just trying to get one more game in the first set and make it more competitive, then one game turned into another and I was able to win that set," Gauff added.
Kostyuk had been looking increasingly frequently at her coach as her confidence waned but she earned three break points off Gauff's forehand and forced the tiebreak when the American double-faulted.
The Ukrainian was revived by treatment on blisters on her feet before the tiebreak but blew her second set point, allowing Gauff to come racing into the net to go a set up.
The players traded breaks throughout a second set featuring some lengthy rallies but it was Gauff who was able to edge ahead and serve for the match at 5-3.
Again, however, a combination of Gauff's frail second serve and Kostyuk's ability to conjure up winners - she fired 39 across the contest -- allowed the Ukrainian to get back on serve and then level up the contest at one-set all.
Gauff found the fix as Kostyuk tired in the third set by ramping up the pace of her first serve and backhand but was broken when serving for the match for the second time.
She finally got over the line at the third time of asking to move into a semi-final against either Aryna Sabalenka - a rematch of last year's Flushing Meadows final - or Czech ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova.
