WHAT HAPPENED: During a season full of vicissitudes, vulnerability, and well-documented service woes, Aryna Sabalenka could have easily let self-doubt get the best of her in 2022.
Instead, she’s done the opposite.
Like a 7 train snaking through the fog on its journey to the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, Sabalenka has powered through the haze of a hectic season and emerged as a live-to-tell tale of perseverance.
“I definitely had a really, really tough season,” the former world No. 2 said earlier this week. “But at the same time, I really appreciate this season because it showed me that even if something is not working for me, I'll be able to fight no matter what.”
Sabalenka’s season has, without question, been a struggle. Wednesday’s clean-and-mean takedown of 2016 finalist Karolina Pliskova was anything but that.
In one of her best performances of the year, Sabalenka never went off the rails as she rocketed past the Czech 6-1, 7-6(4) to reach the semifinals in Flushing Meadows for the second consecutive year.
The 24-year-old has now reeled off five consecutive victories for the first time since she qualified for the semifinals last year at the Open.
After routing Pliskova in a lopsided opening set, the pair put on a serving clinic in set two, with neither facing a break point.
It was Sabalenka who rose to the occasion in the tiebreak, reeling off five of the final seven points with clutch serving and shotmaking to lock up her third career victory in five meetings with Pliskova.
“I just tried to make her work for it,” Sabalenka told the crowd. “She played really well—somehow I was able to handle this level and win this match.”
WHAT IT MEANS: A first time US Open women’s singles champion will be crowned on Saturday in Queens, and Sabalenka has put herself in a position to benefit from the experience of reaching back-to-back semifinals at the Slams in 2021.
Last year, after losing a pressure cooker semifinal to Leylah Fernandez in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Sabalenka spoke prophetically about the loss, and her future.
“This is life,” she said. “If you're not using your opportunities, someone else will use it. This is what happened today. I will try to improve it. I will keep working and fighting, and I believe that one day it will come.”
For the talented No. 6 seed with gargantuan ground strokes and burgeoning confidence, that day could be approaching fast and hard. She’ll have a chance to make good on her promise this weekend in New York, starting with a semifinal against either top-seeded Iga Swiatek or American Jessica Pegula.
MATCH POINT: Sabalenka had her best serving performance of the tournament on Wednesday against Pliskova. She never faced a break point and was only taken to deuce twice. She was particularly effective under pressure in a tight second set in which she fired six aces, including a curling beauty out wide on a second serve at 2-2 in the tiebreak.
Sabalenka had been broken 13 times in her first four matches at the Open, but didn’t surrender a break against Pliskova, and won 63 percent of her second serve points.
