Posted in: 23/04/2022 – 16:28
Stuttgart (Germany) (AFP) – Third-seeded Belarusian Arina Sabalenka ended the second campaign of Spain’s Paula Padusa and reached her first final in 2022, by defeating her 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 Saturday in the Stuttgart tennis semi-finals.
After her marathon quarter-final match against Tunisian Anas Jaber, who eventually lost 6-7 (9-11), 6-1, 3-6, Badusa, ranked third in the world, bowed to Sabalenka to end her quest for a second title this season after being crowned champion of the tournament Sydney in its prime.
It took Sabalenka an hour and 40 minutes to settle her confrontation with Padusa and reach the final for the second year in a row, hoping to be more successful this time to win her eleventh title, after losing in the 2021 final to retired Australian Ashleigh Barty.
Sabalenka will meet in the sixteenth final of her winning career against the Polish first-seeded Iga Švientek and the Russian Lyudmila Samsonova.
© 2022 AFP