Aryana Sabalenko of Belarus defeated 27th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenko of Russia 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 to record her 19th straight victory at the Australian Open Grand Slam tennis tournament at Melbourne Park.
With two more victories Sabalenko can complete a hat-trick of Australian Open Grand Slam wins. If she becomes the champion, she will become the first female player to score a hat-trick of titles after 24 years. Martina Hingis last recorded a hat-trick of Australian Open Grand Slam wins from 1997 to 1999. Sabalenko has already won the Australian Open in 2023 and 2024. She will face 11th seed Paula Badosa in the semifinals. Badosa created an upset by defeating American Coco Goff 7-5, 6-4 in the quarter-finals. Badosa will become the first Spanish woman to play in the semifinals in five years. Finally in 2020, Garbine Muguruza entered the final-4. Sabalenko took one hour and 53 minutes to win the match. After two sets were tied at 1-1, the third and deciding set was tied at 3-3 as Sabalenko won three straight games to turn the match in her favor.
