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, 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.
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, 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.
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