Aryna Sabalenka made it to the 2024 China Open quarter-final after easily beating Madison Keys to make it to the final eight.
Sabalenka seems to be unstoppable at the moment and even Keys, who managed to beat her once before, didn't find a way to trouble the Belarusian player in their fourth-round clash at the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing.
Coming into the match, Sabalenka was on her second-longest winning streak, having won 14 consecutive matches. Previously, she won 15 matches in a row, stretching between the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
She started her streak at the 2020 Ostrava Open, which she won, followed by the Linz Open victory, after which she ended her season. Sabalenka then kicked off the new season with the 2021 Abu Dhabi Open win, before losing at the Gippsland Trophy.
While that run was impressive, this one is even more breathtaking. The reason for that is quite simple. This Sabalenka's winning streak includes victories only from WTA 1000 and Grand Slam tournaments. She started it at the Cincinnati Open, continued at the US Open, and now she's extending it at the China Open.
According to the three-time major winner, one of the keys to winning so much has been her patience. She certainly had to have that against Keys, but she was also able to avoid any additional stress, as she kept the match in two simple sets.
In the first set, she started with a break of serve already in the third game, leading 2-1 and confirming the break with a hold to lead 3-1. However, the World No. 2 player then lost her serve as Keys was able to level the score at 3-3.
Still, it didn't matter much as the top seed turned up the heat to break again and almost ended the first set with a double break. However, the American player saved two set points to force her opponent to serve out the first set. Sabalenka said: 'No problem,' as she held her serve to love, winning the first set 6-4.
If there was something like identical twins in tennis, it would be the first and second sets of this match because exactly the same scenario repeated in the second set.
Sabalenka broke in the third game to lead 2-1, confirmed with a hold to make it 3-1. Funnily enough, Keys broke back to make it 3-3, but the Belarusian player immediately broke back to lead 4-3 again.
The only difference was that when she had a match point this time to make it 6-3, she used it, so the top seed won the match 6-4, 6-3, reaching the 2024 China Open quarter-finals.
After the match, the interviewer asked the Belarusian a light-hearted question. Previously, Sabalenka disclosed that Chinese fried rice was one of her favorite foods, so the World No. 2 player was asked whether she would celebrate this victory by eating that food.
The three-time Grand Slam champion said that she already had it the day before her match, and that there was no reason to change what worked before, so she will probably eat the same food also before her next match, which will be against the winner of a match between Karolina Muchova and Cristina Bucsa.
"I mean, I had it yesterday. It seems like it’s working really well, so I’m just gonna keep doing what I’m doing."