Aryna Sabalenka beat Olympic gold medallist Zheng Qinwen 6-2 7-5 to reach the semifinals at the Miami Open for the first time in her career. The top seed achieved her best result in the WTA 1000 tournament in Florida in 2021 and 2023, when she reached the quarter finals.
Sabalenka broke serve in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Zheng Qinwen broke straight back to draw level to 2-2. Sabalenka won the final four games with two breaks of serve to win the first set 6-2.
Zheng broke three times to take a 4-2 lead, but Sabalenka pulled back each time for 3-4. She went down 0-40 in the eighth game on serve facing three break points, but she fought back to hold serve for 4-4. Sabalenka broke serve in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead and served out the win on her first match point.
Sabalenka won 29 of Zheng’s 35 second serve points to improve to 6-0 in her head-to-head matches against Zheng.
Sabalenka set up a semifinal clash against Jasmine Paolini.
Sabalenka leads 3-2 in her head-to-head matches against Paolini.
Paolini won her first match against Sabalenka in a third-set tie-break at a British cross-court ITF Challenger tournament in 2017, but Sabalenka avenged their first WTA Tour match in Linz in 2020. Paolini won at 2022 Indian Wells WTA 1000 tournament. Sabalenka beat her Italian rival at another WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing and at the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh. “Honestly, every match is tough against her, I always have to work really hard to get the win, and today was an incredible level from both of us. I’m super happy to get this win. I’m super happy with the way I handled all the emotions and handled the pressure, said Sabalenka.
