A rematch yesterday at the Brisbane International between last year’s Australian Open (AO) finalists was lopsided, with Aryna Sabalenka flipping the outcome with a straight-sets win over Madison Keys, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei reached the final in the women’s doubles and Joanna Garland made the final in the singles in Canberra.
Top-ranked Sabalenka broke Keys’ in five straight service games on the way to a 6-3, 6-3 win to reach the semi-finals of the tuneup event for the Australian Open, which is to begin on Jan. 18.
“I didn’t really have the throwback to the Australian Open last year, to be honest,” Sabalenka said. “I know that I lost in Australia against her and it’s a big motivation, of course, to go out and get the win but I always look into the [next] match as like a new match against a new player. That’s my approach.”
Photo: AFP
The defending Brisbane champion next faces 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova, who had a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Elena Rybakina to end a 13-match winning streak for the third seed.
Keys is to play the Adelaide Open, aiming to retain the title there and then repeat the sequence from last year, when she went on to win her first Grand Slam title two weeks later in Melbourne.
“Hopefully I can gain and then just keep a lot of momentum going,” she said. “Hopefully there is many more firsts to come.”
Photo: AFP
Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula had a 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) quarter-final win over No. 10 Liudmila Samsonova and faces Marta Kostyuk in the semis.
Kostyuk eliminated Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (9/7), 6-3.
In the women’s doubles at the Queensland Tennis Centre, Hsieh and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Ukrainian duo Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 6-4 in their semi-final.
Hsieh and Ostapenko are to play Cristina Bucsa of Spain and Australia’s Ellen Perez today in the final at the US$1,691,602 hardcourt tournament.
At the Canberra Tennis Centre, Garland defeated Daria Snigur of Ukraine 7-6 (7/3), 6-3 in the semi-finals at the Canberra International to set up a final today against Polina Kudermetova of Russia, who beat Japan’s Himeno Sakatsume 7-5, 6-2.
In New Zealand, top-seeded Elina Svitolina produced a gritty performance to beat Sonay Kartal in three sets and reach the semi-finals at the Auckland Classic.
Top-seeded Svitolina trailed 5-3 in the third set before rallying to beat Kartal 6-4, 6-7 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).
Kartal had the upper hand for most of the match, but Svitolina produced another superb defensive performance to stay in the match and clinch victory on her second match point.
“There’s still a lot of adrenaline after that last set and the tiebreaker, which is always very difficult and challenging,” said Svitolina, who was runner-up in Auckland in 2024. “All the credit to Sonay, she played incredible and I think she deserved even more than me to win today.”
Svitolina faces American Iva Jovic in the semi-finals today.
Meanwhile, former champion Stanislas Wawrinka was handed a wildcard for the Australian Open in his final season, but home favorite Nick Kyrgios is to play only doubles.
With Kyrgios saying he was not ready for singles matches after an injury, the final three wild cards went to three-time Grand Slam winner Wawrinka, and Australians Jordan Thompson and Chris O’Connell.
Switzerland’s Wawrinka, 40, is playing his last season before retiring.
He won the first of his majors at Melbourne in 2014, a season during which he peaked at world No. 3 and reached two other semi-finals.
“To have the chance to play the AO at the beginning of my final year on tour means the world to me,” said Wawrinka, now ranked 156.
The 2022 Wimbledon finalist Kyrgios made his comeback in Brisbane this week after an injury-ravaged three years, but lost in the opening round to American Aleksandar Kovacevic.
Despite being in the running for a wildcard at his home Grand Slam, the Australian showman said he was not ready.
“After some good conversations with TA [Tennis Australia], I’ve made the call to focus on doubles for this year’s Australian Open,” he said on Instagram. “I’m fit and back on court, but five-setters are a different beast and I’m not quite ready to go the distance yet.”
Kyrgios is to play alongside fellow Australian Thanasi Kokkinakis.
In other matches, China’s Wang Xinyu defeated Francesca Jones of Britain, who retired with the match at 6-4, 4-3.
The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala beat Magda Linette of Poland 6-3, 6-2 and Iva Jovic of the US ousted Belgium’s Sofia Costoulas 6-2, 7-6 (8/6).
Additional reporting by staff writer and AFP
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