Aryna Sabalenka. Photo courtesy of Belarus’ NOC
MINSK, 20 April (BelTA) – Belarus’ world number 2 Aryna Sabalenka has reached the Stuttgart Open quarterfinal defeating world number 12 Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and 15 minutes, BelTA has learned.
The Belarusian will next play either world number 31 Paula Badosa of Spain or world number 77 Cristina Bucsa of Spain.
In the last two years Aryna Sabalenka reached the finals of these competitions twice, but both times she lost to the leaders of the world rankings. In 2021 she lost to Australia’s Ashleigh Barty, and a year ago to Poland’s Iga Swiatek. This time Sabalenka and Swiatek may meet each other as well if they make it to the finals. Iga Swiatek’s opponent in the second round will be China’s world number 25 Qinwen Zheng (25).
The tournament in Stuttgart will be over on 23 April.
