Aryna Sabalenka
Aryna Sabalenka held her nerve to reach the Wimbledon semifinals after a tough 2-hour-54-minute battle against Germany’s Laura Siegemund.
The world number two, who has reached the final in the last three Grand Slams, faced serious pressure from the unseeded Siegemund, whose slices and slow tempo disrupted Sabalenka’s rhythm throughout the match.
“After the first set I was thinking, ‘Book the tickets, we’re about to leave’,” Sabalenka admitted. “But I didn’t want to give her any extra energy.”
Despite moments of frustration, Sabalenka kept her composure, crediting lessons learned from her French Open final loss to Coco Gauff. “I think I would have lost this match if I hadn’t learned from that,” she said.
Siegemund, known more for her doubles success, had never made it past the second round at Wimbledon, but pushed the Belarusian to the limit with clever shot-making.
Sabalenka will now face 13th seed Amanda Anisimova in the semifinals after the American beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-1, 7-6 (11-9).