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Second seed Aryna Sabalenka, last year’s US Open runner-up, dropped just three games against Chen Wenqing on Tuesday night to reach the semi-finals at Flushing Meadows for the fourth straight year.
Sabalenka’s quarterfinal against seventh seed Zheng – a rematch of the Australian Open final in January won by Sabalenka – was the first meeting between top-10 women’s players at the US Open this year.
With Roger Federer in the stands, attending the US Open for the first time since retiring, Sabalenka produced her usual strong performance in a 6-1, 6-2 win to set up a semi-final against Emma Navarro on Thursday.
A year ago, Sabalenka lost to American Coco Gauff in the US Open final, where the crowd gave the champion a huge thumbs up. Now Sabalenka faces another American, Navarro.
After her win last Tuesday, ESPN’s Pam Shriver asked her: “What would you do to try to get more people on your side?”
Sabalenka laughed and told her fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium: “Drinks on me tonight?”
He then repeated the offer to the thousands of spectators, adding: “Please give me some support in the next match.”
She beat 13th seed Navarro in the fourth round at Roland Garros but lost to her on the hard courts at Indian Wells earlier this year and said she expected a tough match.
“She’s a great player. I’ve watched her matches here, she plays great tennis and it’s going to be a great battle and I’m really looking forward to playing her again,” Sabalenka said.
Sabalenka, who has won 33 of 36 sets at Grand Slams this year, is trying to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win Grand Slam titles on hard courts at the Australian Open and US Open.
The other women’s semifinals will be decided on Wednesday, when top seed Iga Swiatek plays sixth seed Jessica Pegula and 22nd seed Beatriz Haddad Maia takes on unseeded Karolina Muchova.
Sabalenka has a 9-1 win-loss record in Grand Slam quarterfinals, the second-best win-loss ratio among women since the start of the Open era in 1968 (minimum 10 matches). Sabalenka leads the list of professional players who have appeared in nine Grand Slam semifinals since the start of 2021 during that period.
The three matches that Zheng, who won gold at the Paris Olympics last month, won were her fewest in a Grand Slam match. She won just 44 percent of her first serves.
“Today I felt a little nervous, and the serve wasn’t as good as I expected,” Cheng said.
Zheng also noted that her fourth-round match against Donna Vekic ending at 2:15 a.m. — the latest ever in a women’s match at the U.S. Open — affected her ability to practice on Monday.
“Yesterday I was terrified, I couldn’t wake up, and even though I wanted to (train, I didn’t feel like it) I was able to do it,” she said.
“I can’t complain… because sometimes the schedule is like this… If I hit some balls yesterday, maybe it would help today, but it’s okay.”
ESPN Stats & Information, Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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