Cincinnati (Ohio), Aug 20 : World No.7 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus was able to rely on her impressive return of serve to defeat the difficulty of China’s Zhang Shuai 6-4, 7-6(1) and win her first hard-court semifinal in almost one year at the Western & Southern Open here.The dominant Belarusian defeated Zhang for the fourth time in five matches and a second time this year in 1 hour 49 minutes.
The five games between these two teams have been decided in straight sets and to win in this match, Sabalenka needed to come back from a number of losses.
She took the opening set after an early break at 4-3, and also broken several times in the second set.
The 24-year-old Sabalenka is playing in her first semi-final on hard courts following the last US Open, and her second last-four appearance in Cincinnati after first making the finals in the year 2018.
“It was a very tough match , and she played a fantastic tennis match,” Sabalenka was quoted by wtatennis.com following her victory.”I’m very happy even though my serve was not working as very well in the second set I was able to remain focused in the return games.I tried my best to remain focus in the return game.”
Sabalenka is hoping to secure a spot in the final three of the season after finishing second best behind Iga Swiatek in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart and Veronika Kudermetova in the Libema Open on grass.
To make it to the final she’ll need to beat either No.7 seed Jessica Pegula or Caroline Garcia.
akm/
