Sabalenka reached her first grand slam singles final with a 7-6 (1) 6-2 victory
Linette, the unseeded 30-year-old who had finally found her place at the business end of a big tournament, had seen off her fair share of heavy hitters at Melbourne Park. Both Karolina Pliskova and Caroline Garcia bit the dust on her way here, and she made a good fist of Sabalenka’s powerhouse performance. The Pole’s defensive skills absorbed much of the barrage, and her footwork allowed her to redirect what she had soaked up to the desired location, particularly from her backhand.
Out on the court, the initial exchanges did not match that picture. Linette began by breaking Sabalenka’s service game to love and then holding serve, by which point the latter had won only a solitary point and racked up five unforced errors. Was Sabalenka too loose? Was Linette actually more focused than nervous? But Sabalenka held her nerve and found her range, breaking back to level at 2-2 before playing game for game until the tie-break.
Sabalenka attempted to get it done too quickly then, tried to go too big at the expense of accuracy and threw away two match points via unforced errors. After Linette held she set about serving out the match, following an ace with another of those fearfully fast forehands she put down to “good genetics”.
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