Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka raced into the Australian Open quarter-finals whereas Coco Gauff recovered from a set right down to defeat Belinda Bencic.
Sabalenka had been pushed in her two earlier matches by Jessica Bouzas Maneiro and Clara Tauson, however she was ruthless towards 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva.
Teenager Andreeva upset Sabalenka on the French Open final summer time, however she lasted simply 62 minutes on Rod Laver Enviornment as the highest seed dished out related remedy to that meted out on Emma Raducanu by Iga Swiatek on Saturday.
After her 6-1 6-2 victory, Sabalenka mentioned: “I’m super happy to get this win. Mirra is so young, so mature, such a great player. She can play really great tennis.”
Sabalenka, who’s seeking to turn into the primary girl to win three singles titles in a row right here since Martina Hingis on the finish of the Nineties, prolonged her successful streak at Melbourne Park to 18 matches.
She’s going to subsequent tackle seventeenth seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who reached the quarter-finals right here for the fourth time with a 7-6 (7-0) 6-0 victory over Donna Vekic.
A blockbuster semi-final conflict between Sabalenka and Gauff is showing extra seemingly after the American hit again to beat Bencic 5-7 6-2 6-1.
The Swiss, a former top-10 star and Olympic gold medallist, not too long ago returned to the tour following the start of daughter Bella final April and performed a fantastic first set.
However Gauff, who had received all her earlier matches this 12 months in straight units, took management early within the second and finally powered her approach to victory in sizzling circumstances on Rod Laver Enviornment.
“I thought in the first set she played great tennis, it was tough for me to be on the offence,” mentioned the 20-year-old.
“I just played more aggressively in the second set and in the third set. Overall I’m happy with how I played. I could have won the first set and I just tried to reset.
“We labored arduous within the low season. Clearly there’s so much to go for me to perform my targets.”
Gauff will subsequent meet eleventh seed Paula Badosa after the Spaniard ended the run of unseeded Serbian Olga Danilovic with a 6-1 7-6 (7-2) victory to achieve the final eight right here for the primary time.
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