Aryna Sabalenka is headed to her second straight Grand Slam semifinal. The No. 2 seed defeated Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-4 in the French Open quarterfinals on Tuesday, putting an end to Svitolina’s comeback story.
Sabalenka marshaled all of her gifts to take down Svitolina. Standing at six feet tall, Sabalenka has incredible power on the court and knows just when to use it. She smashed 30 winners compared to Svitolina’s seven, and her forehand is exceedingly difficult to defend. A video from a spectator shows just how intimidating Sabalenka’s forehand can be. (Sabalenka is on the left.)
Sabalenka, who won the Australian Open in January, is now on to her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal. She’s never been to the semis at Roland Garros before, and has now made it to the semis in all four Grand Slam tournaments.
Sabalenka may have been the victor, but win or lose, Svitolina was always going to be the story of this match. The French Open was her first Grand Slam since she gave birth to her first child in October with her husband, fellow tennis player Gael Monfils. She had spent a full year off the tour before returning in April, and after a month of first and second-round defeats, she broke through in May, making it to the semifinals at the WTA 125 tournament in St. Malo, France. Just a few weeks later she won the Internationaux de Strasbourg, her first title in 21 months.
At Roland Garros, Svitolina played like a woman possessed. She beat the No. 26 seed in the first round, then defeated Daria Kasatkina, the No. 9 seed, to make it to the quarterfinals. It wasn’t easy — she needed three sets to beat Storm Sanders in Round 2 and three to take down Anna Blinkova in Round 3 — but she never backed down or looked tentative.
Svitolina came into the French Open as the No. 192 player in the world. When the rankings are updated after the tournament is completed, she’ll be much, much higher.
Karolina Muchova into second Grand Slam semi
Karolina Muchova, unseeded at Roland Garros and ranked No. 42 in the world, defeated the also-unseeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-2 in the quarterfinals, sending the No. 96 player in the world back home.
The pair started evenly, with Muchova jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first set before Pavlyuchenkova caught up. They tied at 3-3, then 4-4, and finally 5-5 in the first set, but that’s when Muchova came alive. She won eight of the final 10 points to win the set.
After that, it was all Muchova. She faced just one break point in the second set, which she saved, and stifled Pavlyuchenkova in all but two games.
The match between Muchova and Pavlyuchenkova was a battle of injury redemption. Pavlyuchenkova, an Olympic gold medalist and 2021 French Open runner-up, missed nearly all of 2022 due to a knee injury, competing only at the Australian Open before withdrawing from Roland Garros and ending her season early. Muchova has had trouble staying on the court in general, struggling with abdominal and ankle injuries that forced her to miss time in 2022 and affected her performance overall, leading to first-round exits at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Pavlyuchenkova should feel proud of how she performed at her first French Open since her dream run in 2021, but redemption belongs to Muchova alone. While playing in Round 3 at the 2022 French Open, Muchova was forced to retire after rolling her ankle. Now, one year after that disappointing end, she’s been lighting up the tour and is on her way to her second Grand Slam semifinal.
Muchova and Sabalenka will face each other on Thursday in the semifinals.
