Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
Sport
Eleanor Crooks

Aryna Sabalenka beats Karolina Pliskova to reach US Open semi-finals again

AP

Aryna Sabalenka made it back-to-back US Open semi-finals with victory over Karolina Pliskova.

The Belarusian, who was beaten by Leylah Fernandez in the last four 12 months ago, survived a close second set to defeat Czech Pliskova 6-1 7-6 (4).

Sabalenka, who trailed Kaia Kanepi 6-2 5-1 in her second-round match, will bid to reach her first career grand slam final having also lost to Pliskova in the last four at Wimbledon last summer.

The 24-year-old was unable to play at Wimbledon this year because of the ban on Russian and Belarusian players, and used the time to train in Miami.

Having struggled horribly with her serve at the beginning of the year, hitting huge numbers of double faults, Sabalenka appears to have fixed the problem.

Her serve worked very well on Wednesday, with the sixth seed not facing a single break point and hitting three times as many winners as Pliskova.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.