Aryna Sabalenka proved once again that she's one of the 2023 Wimbledon favourites after beating Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Thanks to her explosive style and powerful serve, it's not a surprise that the second-seeded Belarusian is one of the favourites in the WTA draw. And after her fellow co-favourites handled their fourth-round matches quite well, Sabalenka also had to show her qualities.
While Iga Swiatek had to save match points to beat Belinda Bencic, Elena Rybakina spent only 20 minutes on the tennis court after Beatriz Haddad Maia retired. Sabalenka wanted to follow the Kazakhstani player in not spending a lot of time on the court and she succeeded in doing that.
Taking on Alexandrova, who is one of the best grass-court players, the Belarusian knew she has to be cautious. Sabalenka lost three of the five matches that she played against the Russian with the most recent loss coming last year on grass in 's-Hertogenbosch.
At this year's Wimbledon, Sabalenka had one match that was challenging for her, but other than that, it's been a comfortable cruise and she navigated the ship toward the correct destination also in the fourth-round match.
The first set was a real battle as both players held onto their serves comfortably. But at 4-3, Alexandrova started having problems, allowing her opponent to have break points. The Russian saved both, but little did she know that would be her last game won in the match.
Sabalenka then created four more break point chances in the tenth game of the first set, and using her fourth, the Belarusian won the opening set of the match 6-4. The second set was much more straightforward after the second seed stopped missing.
The Belarusian was serving really well and she was returning even better. After an hour and 13 minutes, Sabalenka won the match 6-4, 6-0 to reach the 2023 Wimbledon quarterfinals. She will now play against Madison Keys who defeated Mirra Andreeva earlier on the day.
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