Paris, June 6 (UNI) Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday halted the captivating comeback of Elina Svitolina with a full-throttle 6-4, 6-4 victory on Court Philippe-Chatrier.
The Australian Open champion extended her career-best showing at Roland-Garros, earning a semifinal spot to take on Czech Karolina Muchova.
Sabalenka has also kept up her bid for the world No.1 ranking, which she can clinch by outperforming Iga Swiatek this week in Paris.
Svitolina crunched a line-skimming cross-court backhand, then Sabalenka slid out wide of the left tramline to launch her own backhand winner. The opening two points hinted at a high-quality contest and that's exactly what the spectators witnessed.
Former world No.3 Svitolina, featuring in her fourth Roland-Garros quarter-final, was hustling every point, absorbing plenty of power play from Sabalenka.
The No.2 seed wasn't all about force though, transitioning forward to connect with a balletic backhand volley put-away and a stretched forehand volley helped her evade trouble for 2-2.
Having taken a year off from matches to give birth to her first child in October, Svitolina only returned to competition in April. However, the 28-year-old was serving strongly and keeping apace in plenty of rock n' roll rallies.
The relentless velocity and accuracy off both wings from Sabalenka finally told at 4-4 as she gained the pivotal break and secured the opening set in 41 minutes.
Svitolina fended off an instant break in the second set with a sweetly-struck backhand pass. The Ukrainian was swiftly 2-0 ahead, with the world No.2 offering up a handful of untimely errors.
The match was still on Sabalenka's racquet though, the searing backhands and forehands kept unravelling the gallant Svitolina defence.
Sabalenka converted a third break point of the game to narrow her deficit to 1-2 then broke again in game five to inch ahead, wearing down the resurgent world No.192.
Even down 0-30 serving for the match at 5-4, the all-encompassing, all-court game of Sabalenka had too much intensity, to erase any chance of a decider. UNI BDN