\u201cWhat an incredible player she is, approaching the net, what a great returner, moving well, very brave,\u201d Sabalenka said after her first meeting with the fiery player from Chicago. \u201cYou can see how focused she was and it was really challenging playing her, especially here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second set unfolded in more traditional style, neither player facing a break point through the first three games.<\/p>\n
It was Sabalenka who blinked first.<\/p>\n
Looking rattled after smacking a forehand into the net to give Townsend a break point, Sabalenka offered up a weak second serve that Townsend punished with a return winner for a break and a 3-1 lead.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka immediately broke back, however, launching a run of five straight games to take the match.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was like, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re down the break, just try to return the serve and put as much pressure as you can on her\u2019,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI was just trying to stay focused on myself and play not only point by point but ball by ball and I\u2019m happy that I was able to turn around that second set.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Belarusian, who must win to have a chance of retaining her number one status in New York, will face sixth-seeded Czech Noskova for a place in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Noskova needed six match points to seal a 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Ukraine\u2019s Marta Kostyuk, failing to convert two in the second set.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am more than relieved,\u201d Noskova said. \u201cThis match was so tough, emotionally more so than physically.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the men\u2019s draw, Alcaraz overpowered Paul for a straight-sets win to move into the quarter-finals of his first Grand Slam title since winning the Australian Open in January.<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old world No 3 did not enter Wimbledon or the French Open, and has played sparingly since winning the Melbourne tournament due to injury and fatigue. <\/p>\n
Since claiming the Australian Open title to complete his career Grand Slam \u2013 winning all four of the sport\u2019s biggest tournaments \u2013 he had played just five tournaments before the US Open. <\/p>\n
Alcaraz was in fine form against Paul, with 33 winners to Paul\u2019s 18 \u2013 with the Spaniard making double-digit winners in every set. <\/p>\n
He was strong on serve \u2013 saving three of the four break points he faced in the match \u2013 while he was able to attack Paul\u2019s serve to create 14 break point opportunities of his own, converting four of them. <\/p>\n
Alcaraz will meet the winner between eighth-seeded American Ben Shelton and Stefano Tsitsipas of Greece in the quarter-finals. <\/p>\n
– With NZ Herald<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhat an incredible player she is, approaching the net, what a great returner, moving well, very brave,\u201d Sabalenka…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[375,8779,5184,25844,8506,3349,4220,16301,2386,12395,4628,12981,8714,517,1147,4361,2265,5662,5668,25843,7562,28,23586,25842,2519,285,6131,2468],"class_list":["post-67346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-alcaraz","tag-american","tag-aryna","tag-book","tag-carlos","tag-champion","tag-clash","tag-defending","tag-into","tag-linda","tag-monday","tag-move","tag-noskova","tag-open","tag-quarterfinal","tag-quarterfinals","tag-sabalenka","tag-sets","tag-straight","tag-subdued","tag-taylor","tag-tennis","tag-townsend","tag-twotime","tag-us","tag-wimbledon","tag-winner","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}