Sabalenka reaches the Australian Open semis as she seeks 3rd title in a row

Aryna Sabalenka's bid for a third consecutive Australian Open championship will continue after she got past Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a surprisingly difficult quarterfinal Tuesday night in Melbourne.

The No. 1-ranked Sabalenka has now won 19 matches in a row at Melbourne Park and will face her good friend, No. 11 seed Paula Badosa, in the semifinals Thursday.

Sabalenka had run her set streak to 25 at the place — dating all the way to the 2023 final — when she grabbed the opener against 2021 French Open runner-up Pavlyuchenkova. But Sabalenka had a hard time harnessing her intimidating strokes on a windy evening in Rod Laver Arena until doing so down the stretch and collecting the last three games after the third set was tied at 3-all.

"Honestly," Sabalenka said, "I was just praying."

She won her first major championship at Melbourne Park in 2023, then added another last January, before raising her total to three Grand Slam trophies at the U.S. Open last September.

The last woman to win the Australian Open three straight years was Martina Hingis from 1997 to 1999.

Badosa's 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 3 Coco Gauff in the day's first quarterfinal was surprising, sure, but nothing compared with how significant a win by No. 27 Pavlyuchenkova over Sabalenka would have been.

And that certainly seemed like it might occur for much of the second set and at least the start of the third. Instead, Pavlyuchenkova fell to 1-8 in Grand Slam quarterfinals, including 0-4 at the Australian Open.

So how did Pavlyuchenkova nearly pull off the win this time?

By handling Sabalenka's big serves, first and foremost, reading them well and delivering deep returns. It took a bit of time to find the range, but once she did,