Aryna Sabalenka Plays Almost Flawlessly To Destroy Mirra Andreeva At Australian Open
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Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka swiftly extinguished any hopes of an epic battle against Mirra Andreeva with a ruthless performance to reach the quarterfinal.
Sabalenka met during the season's opening week. The Belarusian also dominated that match, although the 17-year-old at least had her moments during a 2-6, 3-6 loss to the tournament's eventual winner.
The WTA world No. 1 might have been happy to get revenge in that contest after losing to Andreeva in the quarterfinal of last year's French Open. Sabalenka revealed before their Australian Open match what led to her struggling with an illness in their meeting at Roland Garros.
Defeating Sabalenka at the Australian Open is one of the most difficult tasks in tennis. The two-time defending champion had won her last 17 matches at the event before she met with Andreeva and only dropped one set during that period.
However, Clara Tauson proved in the third round that playing at a high level can at least make competing with Sabalenka possible. The Dane lost 6-7, 4-6, but produced a display to be proud of in front of the fans on the Rod Laver Arena.
Sabalenka and Andreeva started comfortably on serve by holding to love. Andreeva has improved her serve since former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez joined as coach in April last year, and that shot was crucial to her chances of winning this matchup.
The youngster struggled to get free points off that shot afterward, though. Although playing during the day quickens the courts in Melbourne somewhat, they are still slower than in recent years, something players like Jessica Pegula pointed out.
That meant Andreeva's second serves sat up to be hit by Sabalenka, and the Belarusian also had time to pick her spot during the rallies. Andreeva is an impressive athlete, but the defending champion's shots were too powerful for her to handle.
Sabalenka raced to the opening set in 24 minutes by reeling off five consecutive games from 1-1. Andreeva, who sometimes cries during challenging moments, kept her emotions in check but was struggling to cope with her opponent's intensity.
Last year's French Open semifinalist began the second set well by hitting four unreturned serves after finding her spots perfectly. While positive, she needed to combine improved serving with greater rally tolerance to be competitive.
Unfortunately, that did not happen consistently enough for those wanting a competitive match. Sabalenka broke to go 2-1 up before finding two big serves after being pushed to deuce on her serve for the first time in the contest.
Andreeva received a massive cheer from the crowd after unexpectedly holding from 0-40 down. She strung together her best run of points in the match to do that, including a superb backhand winner.
The young star then had a chance to get back into the contest after creating three break points in Sabalenka's next service game. Andreeva undoubtedly rues not being able to take any of those opportunities after being in the rallies for all of them.
That moment seemed to break Andreeva's spirits. She made some loose unforced errors in the next two games, allowing Sabalenka to complete a comprehensive 6-1, 6-2 victory.
