Aryna Sabalenka turns tide with straight-sets win over Keys

BRISBANE, Australia — This rematch between Australian Open finalists was lopsided, and Aryna Sabalenka flipped the outcome with a straight-sets win over Madison Keys.

Top-ranked Sabalenka broke Keys in five straight service games on the way to a 6-3, 6-3 win in 1½ hours Friday to reach the semifinals of the Brisbane International, a tuneup event for the Australian Open, which begins Jan. 18.

“I didn’t really have the throwback to the Australian Open last year, to be honest,” Sabalenka said. “I know that I lost in Australia against her, and it’s a big motivation, of course, to go out and get the win. But I always look into the [next] match as like a new match against a new player. That’s my approach.”

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The defending Brisbane champion will next take on 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova, who had a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win over Elena Rybakina to end a 13-match streak for the No. 3 seed. Fourth-seeded Jessica Pegula had a 6-3, 7-6 (3) quarterfinal win over No. 10 Liudmila Samsonova and will next play No. 16 Marta Kostyuk, who beat sixth-seeded Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (7), 6-3.

Muchova won her third career meeting with Rybakina to improve to 2-1 against the WTA Finals champion. She also has a 3-1 record against No. 1 Sabalenka.

“Doesn’t matter if I’m the one who is leading head-to-head or I’m the one who is losing. I don’t care,” Sabalenka said, adding that her focus is to control the kinds of emotions that derailed her sometimes when she was younger. “In the past, I could lose a match because I’d be so frustrated. Now I’m just trying to move on like, ‘OK, whatever.’ I feel like it’s been working well for me.”

Keys will head to Adelaide aiming to retain the title there and then hope to repeat the sequence from 2025, when she went on to win her first Grand Slam title two weeks later in Melbourne.

“Hopefully I can gain and then just keep a lot of momentum going,” she said. “Hopefully there is many more firsts to come.”

On a warm Friday afternoon at Pat Rafter Arena, Sabalenka got the first service break in the seventh game and then took six of the next seven games. Keys broke serve to open the second set in the only interruption in that sequence.

The American faced immense pressure on her second serve, finishing the match with eight double-faults and winning just 33% of points on her second serve.

Keys, 30, saved two match points in the eighth game of the second set, but it barely slowed down Sabalenka, who served out at love.

Sabalenka has two straight-sets wins over Keys — the other was 6-0, 6-1 at Indian Wells — since that loss at Melbourne Park almost 12 months ago. She also reached the French Open final, won the US Open and finished the competitive season with a runner-up finish at the WTA Finals.

Earlier at the Brisbane tournament, she described the season schedule as “insane” and said she will risk fines in order to skip tournaments to avoid injuries or burnout. Still, she wants as much competition as possible before the season’s first major.

“I’m just trying to get some matches, get some wins,” she said, “and get the rhythm going again.”

In the men’s tournament, top-seeded Daniil Medvedev came from a set down to beat Kamil Majchrzak 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-2 and advance to the semifinals.

“I managed to stay composed and hit some great shots to win the match,” Medvedev said.

Medvedev will face Alex Michelsen in the semis.