Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one and two-time defending US Open champion, defeated American Taylor Townsend 6-4, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the US Open on September 6 in New York [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8].
The match featured multiple service breaks early on, with five breaks in the first set alone before Sabalenka took a 4-2 lead [1, 3, 4, 5]. Townsend broke Sabalenka three times in the first four service games, showing resilience, but Sabalenka regained control and closed out the victory in 75 minutes [3, 7, 8].
Sabalenka was praised for her resilience and composure, particularly for overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the second set to win. She said, "Basically, I was just trying to stay focused on myself and play not only point by point but ball by ball. I'm happy that I was able to turn it around in that second set" [1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8]. She added, "It was really challenging, and going through tough challenges and overcoming those challenges, it definitely gives you strength and really strong belief that you can do it. These kind of matches are really, really, really like a boost of confidence" [6].
Sabalenka also praised Townsend's play, calling her "an incredible player" with strong net skills and return ability. "You can see how focused she was. It was really challenging playing her, especially here," Sabalenka said [2, 3, 5, 7, 8]. Townsend is ranked number 96 in the world while Sabalenka holds the top spot [2, 9, 5, 8].
The win extended Sabalenka's US Open winning streak to 18 matches and marked her sixth consecutive quarter-final appearance at the tournament [3, 6].
In other matches on September 6, sixth-seeded Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic defeated 11th-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 to reach the US Open quarter-finals [10, 11]. Noskova sealed the hard-fought match on her sixth match point and described the encounter as "so tough" emotionally. "I feel like a huge rock fell off my heart at the end," she said, adding that the match "was very close. It could have ended both ways" [10, 11].
Sabalenka will face either Noskova or Kostyuk in the semi-finals, awaiting the outcome of their next round match [1, 2, 3, 10, 9, 4, 5, 11, 12, 7, 8].
