Sabalenka Continues Stuttgart Dominance & Secures 2023 Final Spot
WTA
Aryna Sabalenka outplayed Anastasia Potapova in the semi-finals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart to reach the final of the WTA 500 tournament.
Sabalenka has had a really good season so far. She started it with a wonderful run Down Under as she finally won her maiden Grand Slam trophy at the Australian Open. She continued playing well in the following weeks, making the Indian Wells Open final, in which she lost to Elena Rybakina, and also the Miami Open quarter-final.
Switching to clay didn’t really change anything for her, as she continues to play well. To be fair, she’s been coming to Stuttgart for a while and generally likes the indoor conditions, which makes this event very unique in the clay world of tennis.
Potapova has been playing superbly as well, beating the likes of Petra Martic, Coco Gauff, and Caroline Garcia in Stuttgart. Ahead of her match against Sabalenka, the Russian player even talked about their friendship.
"Aryna is my good friend, I think it's gonna be fun. I've been waiting for this match, I've really wanted to play against you Aryna I don't know of you're watching."
But in their meeting, it was all about Sabalenka, quite literally, as she blew her opponent off the court. The match lasted only 60 minutes, and that’s because Sabalenka was just slamming winner after winner after winner.
It was a rather painful experience for Potapova, who didn’t help herself by serving very poorly. Sabalenka saw her weaker serve too often, winning 79% of points on the Russian’s second serve.
The match was never going to last long with that kind of domination, and that’s exactly what happened. Potapova had some moments where she looked competitive, mostly on Sabalenka’s own second serve, attacking it with decent success, but it wouldn’t prove enough as she couldn’t handle the Belarusian on her own serve.
Ultimately, it was a 6-1, 6-2 win for Sabalenka, who made it through to yet another final, but unlike her previous final (Indian Wells), she hopes to win this one. Her final opponent will be the winner of the match between World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and third-seeded Ons Jabeur.
