Aryna Sabalenka Dominates US Open, Reaches Quarter-Finals

Aryna Sabalenka is starting to turn Flushing Meadows into her own private fortress.

Under the New York lights, with most of the crowd roaring for the American on the other side of the net, the two-time defending champion rode out the chaos and then crushed Taylor Townsend’s resistance, 6-4 6-3, to reach a sixth consecutive US Open quarter-final.

That number matters. No woman had done that here since Serena Williams in 2016. Sabalenka is now walking in that rare air – and she knows it.

Sabalenka bends, then bites back

This was not the routine straight-sets win the scoreline suggests. For a set and a half, it was messy, edgy, and at times wild.

The match opened with five straight breaks of serve, a tug-of-war that said as much about the ferocity of the returning as it did about any nerves. Sabalenka’s heavy groundstrokes met Townsend’s clever angles and net rushes, and neither player could lock down a hold.

Eventually, the top seed steadied first. Once she found a rhythm behind her first serve and started stepping into the court, the rallies shortened and the errors thinned out. She served out the opening set at the second attempt, but Townsend refused to fade.

The American, a doubles specialist with a flair for theatre, walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium in a long black-feathered outfit and then backed it up with bold, front-foot tennis. She broke early in the second set, moving ahead 3-1 and igniting a crowd desperate for an upset.

That was the moment Sabalenka’s season, and perhaps her aura here, could have wobbled.

Instead, she snapped.

Needing a response to protect both her title defence and her grip on the No. 1 ranking, Sabalenka broke back to love. From there, she slammed the door. The final five games were a stampede: she dropped only five points, ripping winners, tightening her margins, and stripping Townsend of time and space. What had been a contest turned into a sprint to the finish line, wrapped up in just 75 minutes.

“I was just trying to stay focused on myself, not only point by point but ball by ball,” she said afterwards. “I’m happy I was able to turn around the second set, I think it was a key moment.”

She was also quick to salute her opponent: “What an incredible player she is, approaching the net, a great returner, moving well, very brave. You can see how focused she was. It was really challenging playing her, especially here.”

Chasing Serena’s shadow

With this win, Sabalenka stretches her unbeaten run at the US Open to 18 matches, a three-year streak built on back-to-back titles in 2024 and 2025. She has not failed to reach the semi-finals in New York since 2020, and now stands three victories away from a third straight crown.

The last woman to do that? Serena Williams, again.

The historical echoes grow louder with each round. Six straight quarter-finals. A chance at three consecutive titles. A top seed who must lift the trophy to have any hope of keeping the No. 1 ranking. The stakes are clear, and Sabalenka is playing like someone who understands them.

This season has not been as smooth elsewhere. A fourth-round exit at Wimbledon left her staring at the possibility of a first year without a major title since 2022. New York, once more, offers redemption.

“Thank you so much [to the crowd] for being so respectful to me,” she told the spectators, aware of the partisan mood. “I knew coming into this match that you guys would be on her side, but you were sometimes cheering for me and I really appreciate that.”

On a night when the noise swelled for the underdog, Sabalenka’s composure – so often questioned in past tight spots – held firm.

Noskova survives a rollercoaster

Waiting next is Linda Noskova, the Wimbledon champion and sixth seed, who survived her own emotional trial earlier in the day.

Noskova needed six match points to finally subdue Marta Kostyuk 7-5 5-7 6-4 in a two-and-a-half-hour contest that lurched repeatedly away from her grasp and then back again. When the end finally came, the 21-year-old dropped to a crouch, the relief written all over her.

She had served for the match in the second set at 5-3 and held two match points, only for Kostyuk to claw her way back and force a decider. In the third, Noskova again moved ahead 5-3, again earned chances, and again let them slip as Kostyuk dragged the game to deuce and even held a break point.

Noskova missed match points three, four and five. Only on the sixth did she close, after what she called a mentally draining afternoon.

“I am more than relieved, this match was so tough, emotionally a bit more than physically,” she said. “Today was very close, it could have ended both ways. With all the chances I had in the second set, it was tough to still kind of restart.”

Restart she did, and now she walks into a quarter-final with the most dominant player this tournament has seen in three years.

A quarter-final with edge

Sabalenka and Noskova arrive from different paths: one cruising through New York with an 18-match unbeaten run, the other escaping a three-set storm that tested every nerve.

One is defending a kingdom; the other is trying to expand her own, fresh from conquering Wimbledon.

Sabalenka has made these courts feel familiar, almost comfortable. Noskova is learning how to bend majors to her will. Their collision will decide more than a semi-final place. It will tell whether the US Open remains Sabalenka’s domain, or whether a new champion is ready to steal her stage.