MELBOURNE, Australia — Aryna Sabalenka has advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, where she’s three wins from achieving something no woman has done since the 1990s.
The two-time defending champion extended her winning streak at Melbourne Park to 18 matches with a 6-1, 6-2 win over 14th-seeded Mirra Andreeva to open play Sunday on Rod Laver Arena.
Martina Hingis, from 1997 to 1999, was the last woman to win three straight Australian Open singles titles.
Sabalenka hugged Andreeva after the match, waved to the crowd, took a photo with her Polaroid camera — a new trend for here — and gave a thumbs up to mark the occasion.
“I came up with the idea with my boyfriend, that throughout the year, we’re going to collect Polaroid pictures,” she said. “And we’re going to frame it, and I hope we’ll have a lot of cool moments this year to collect.”
A winner of 24 consecutive sets in Melbourne, she said “I’m super happy to get through this difficult match in straight sets.” It was over in just over an hour.
Apart from the fifth game of the second set, when Sabalenka has triple breakpoint but Andreeva rallied by winning five straight points to hold, just about everything went the way of the No. 1-ranked player.
Sabalenka didn’t face a break point until midway through the second set, when she saved three in one game. It seemed like she was testing her serve under pressure.
No. 3 Coco Gauff, who has won all 16 sets she’s played this year, was playing Tokyo Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the second match on Rod Laver on Day 8.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
