MELBOURNE, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka moved one win away from becoming the first woman since 1999 to win three consecutive Australian Open titles, recovering from a slow start to beat good friend Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday and return to the final.
“I have goose bumps. I’m so proud of myself. I’m proud of my team that we were able to put ourselves in such a situation,” said the No. 1-seeded Sabalenka, who will face No. 2 Iga Swiatek or No. 19 Madison Keys for the championship. “If I’ll be able to put myself in the history [books], it’s going to mean a lot. It’s going to mean the world to me.”
Just 10 minutes into her semifinal, Sabalenka was down a break and trailed 2-0, 40-love. She was making unforced errors, shaking her head or gesturing toward her entourage in the stands after many of them.
But the 26-year-old from Belarus quickly figured things out, especially once Rod Laver Arena’s retractable roof was shut late in the first set because of a drizzle. She straightened her strokes, frequently using huge returns and groundstrokes to overpower the 11th-seeded Badosa, who had eliminated No. 3 Coco Gauff on Tuesday to reach her first major semifinal.
Sabalenka grabbed four games in a row and five of six to lead 5-3 and soon was ending that set with a 114 mph ace. She broke to lead 2-1 in the second set — helped by two double-faults by Badosa — and again to go up 4-1.
“She started to be very, very aggressive. Everything was working. Everything she was doing today, touching today, could become gold,” said Badosa, who thought about retiring last year while dealing with a stress fracture in her back. “If she plays like this, I mean, we can already give her the trophy.”
The key statistic: Sabalenka finished with a 32-11 advantage in winners.
That’s the sort of excellence that helped Sabalenka win her first major trophy at Melbourne Park in 2023, and she since has added two more: in Australia a year ago and at the US Open in September.
The last woman to reach three finals in a row at the year’s first Grand Slam tournament was Serena Williams, who won two from 2015 to 2017. Martina Hingis was the most recent woman with a three-peat, doing it from 1997 to 1999.
The men’s semifinals are Friday: Novak Djokovic vs. Alexander Zverev, followed by defending champion Jannik Sinner vs. Ben Shelton. The women’s final is Saturday; the men’s is Sunday.
Sabalenka and Badosa did their best to avoid eye contact for much of the evening, whether up at the net for the coin toss or when they crossed paths at changeovers.
One exception came early in the second set, when Badosa tumbled to the court and flung her racket away to avoid injury. Badosa immediately put up a thumb to make clear she was fine. When a replay was shown on stadium video screens, Sabalenka pantomimed to indicate Badosa took a dive, and they both smiled.
When the match was over, they met at the net for a lengthy hug.
During Sabalenka’s on-court interview, she joked about maybe taking Badosa — who by then was sitting in a hallway, her head bowed — on a shopping spree to make things up to her, paying for whatever the Spaniard wants.
“After a couple of battles against each other, we spoke and decided to put it aside,” said Sabalenka, who leads their head-to-head series 6-2. “She wanted it badly. We both wanted it badly. … No matter what happens on the court, we’re going to be friends after our matches.”
Sabalenka paused, before joking: “I hope she’s still my friend. I’m sure she’ll hate me for the next hour or day. I’m OK with that.”
On her way to the locker room, Sabalenka stopped to console Badosa.
Later, when told what Sabalenka said about footing the bill at some stores, Badosa said: “It’s going to be something really expensive, because now I think she doubled the prize money. So she won’t have a problem.”
