BELARUSIANS! Aryna Sabalenka Knocks Down Compatriot Victoria Azarenka at National Bank Open 2021 Quarterfinals

The women’s singles category at the National Bank Open witnessed an all-Belarusian quarterfinal today. World No. 3 Aryna Sabalenka took on former World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka to advance to the semifinals of the warmup tournament for the US Open.

While both players went back and forth, Sabalenka punched her ticket to the semifinals with an emphatic straight-sets victory. The final score read 6-2, 6-4.

Aryna Sabalenka vs Victoria Azarenka: Set 1

The top seeded Sabalenka served first, and held her serve to go 1-0 up. She immediately broke Azarenka’s serve, before serving once again to take a 3-0 lead. However, Azarenka didn’t back down, pulling off an incredible love service game to make the score 3-1.

Despite that effort, Sabalenka proved too strong for her compatriot. After serving to go 4-1 up, she broke Azarenka’s serve once again to go 5-1 up. Although Azarenka immediately broke back, Sabalenka broke Azarenka’s serve yet again in the eighth game of the set, and clinched the set 6-2.

Sabalenka vs Azarenka: Set 2

Once again, the World No. 3 served first in the set. However, Azarenka surprised Sabalenka by breaking her serve to go 1-0 up. The former World No. 1 immediately followed it up with another love service game to go 2-0 up.

Following this, both players held their serves for the next five games of the set. However, the eighth game of the set saw Sabalenka break her fellow Belarusian’s serve to tie the set at 4-4. In the next game, the top seed made no mistakes to take a decisive 5-4 lead.

Although Azarenka served two love service games in the match, that wasn’t the case in the 10th game of the set. Sabalenka broke the World No. 15’s serve one last time to seal the set 6-4.

With this victory, Sabalenka will face the winner of the semifinal between Karolina Pliskova and Sara Sorribes Tormo.

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