Melbourne: World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka continued her dominant run at the Australian Open, surviving a tense third-round match against Austria’s Anastasia Potapova to reach the fourth round for the sixth consecutive year. The two-hour-and-two-minute battle saw Sabalenka save four set points in the second-set tiebreak to win 7-6(4), 7-6(7) inside Rod Laver Arena.
The victory also extended Sabalenka’s remarkable streak in Grand Slam tiebreaks. She has now won 19 consecutive tiebreaks at the majors, the longest run by a woman in the Open Era, matched only by Novak Djokovic (2005-07) among active singles players.
“I’m super happy with my mentality today. I think it was the only thing that really helped me get the win,” Sabalenka said after the match. “It was one of those days you have to fight to try and get the ball back. Emotionally I was all over the place. I was trying to figure out how to connect my body. It seemed like everything was working separately; my brain was somewhere else, my arms were going one direction. Magically, I was able to get this win.”
Meanwhile, 19-year-old Canadian rising star Victoria Mboko, the 2025 WTA Newcomer of the Year, booked her first-ever second-week appearance at a Grand Slam. The No. 17 seed rallied after failing to convert three match points to edge past No. 14 seed Clara Tauson 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3 in a thrilling third-round encounter. Mboko credited “self-belief” for helping her close out the 2-hour-19-minute contest, overcoming a tough stretch in the second set to prevail.
The win sets up a high-stakes fourth-round showdown between Sabalenka and Mboko, pitting the world’s top-ranked player against one of the WTA Tour’s brightest young stars. Sabalenka, who has now reached at least the fourth round in 13 of her last 14 Grand Slam appearances, continues her bid for a third title in four years in Melbourne.
Fans can expect a clash of experience versus youthful exuberance when the two meet in Melbourne.
Source: WTA, BBC
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