Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, world No.2, qualified on Wednesday for the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Rome by beating Latvian Jelena Ostapenko (10th) 6-2, 6-4 in the quarters.
She will face in the next round the winner of the meeting between her compatriot Victoria Azarenka (24th) and the American Danielle Collins (15th). The other semi-final will pit world No.1, Polish Iga Swiatek, against American Coco Gauff (N.3). The top three in the WTA rankings will therefore be there for this final square.
After an easily won first set, Sabalenka was a little hung up at the start of the second set by Ostapenko, titled at Roland-Garros in 2017. But the Belarusian managed to make the break at 4-3. Despite a few winning returns in the Latvian’s following games, Sabalenka concluded on her first match point, after 1h12 of play.
The double winner of the Australian Open, finalist in Madrid last weekend, had a much more difficult round of 16 against the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina (19th) 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (9/7).
