Tennis-Dominant Sabalenka brushes aside teenager Jovic to reach Australian Open semis

By Michael Church

MELBOURNE, Jan 27 (Reuters) – Aryna Sabalenka handed 18-year-old American Iva Jovic a comprehensive 6-3 6-0 defeat in the quarter-finals at a sweltering Melbourne Park on Tuesday to remain on course for a third Australian Open title in four years.

The world number one, champion in 2023 and 2024 and runner-up last year, will meet either Coco Gauff or Elina Svitolina for a place in Saturday’s title match.

“These teenagers have been testing me in the last couple of rounds,” said Sabalenka, who defeated Canadian 19-year-old Victoria Mboko in the previous round.

“Don’t look at score, it wasn’t easy at all. She played incredible tennis, pushed me to one step better level. It was a tough battle.”

Sabalenka made a blistering start, racing into a 3-0 lead in the opener and Jovic was made to work by the Belarusian to hold her serve in the fourth game to gain a foothold in the set.

The teenager, appearing in her first Grand Slam quarter-final, used her speed around the court to frustrate her more experienced opponent, although Sabalenka eventually closed out the first set in just under an hour.

Sabalenka was even more dominant in the second set, the 27-year-old firing a cross-court winner beyond Jovic to break serve in the opening game.

“In the second set I felt like I had to step in and put even more pressure on her, because I can see that she’s young, she’s hungry,” Sabalenka said.

“I could tell during the match that no matter what’s the score, she’s still going to be there, trying and trying to figure (out) her way.”

That put the four-times Grand Slam champion firmly in command and she would go on to convert another pair of break points to move ominously into the last four.

Jovic said the result would not make or break her career and that it was a dream just to make the quarter-finals.

“When you play players like Aryna, who are obviously very powerful and hit a big ball and don’t let you really get into the match from the beginning, you have to accept that and adjust to that tempo of points,” Jovic told reporters.

“You can’t really choose how it’s going to play. You have to accept that it’s going to be quick-fire and it’s going to be short. Then you have to kind of match that extreme almost.

“For me, I was kind of just trying to drift a little bit in the middle. So that obviously doesn’t work. Now I know for next time.”

(Reporting by Michael Church, Additional reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)