Aryna Sabalenka bests Taylor Townsend to tie Serena Williams with sixth-straight US Open quarterfinals

It was a service break-a-palooza inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on Sunday. Aryna Sabalenka and American Taylor Townsend put on a clinic in breaking serves to kick off the fourth round of the U.S.Open, as the No.

1-seeded Belarusian pulled out the victory 6-4, 6-3 in a tougher-than-it-looked match. Of the 19 total games played between the two, 11 featured service breaks. Both Townsend and Sabalenka struggled to hold serve throughout the match, but Sabalenka finished with an edge of seven breaks to Townsend’s four to advance to the quarterfinals for a sixth straight year. Sabalenka will face No.6 Linda Noskova, who edged Marta Kostyuk 7-5, 5-7, 6-4 later Sunday. “She was returning really well.

She saw where I’m going,” Sabalenka said of Townsend.“She was blocking really well.

I guess playing doubles and mixed doubles really helped her to react on, like, heavy serve.Plus, I think it’s been a while since I played with the roof closed, so I feel like we both were struggling a little bit to see the ball, and that’s why the return got a little bit off. “That was a really challenging beginning, but then I had to adjust my serve, the speed, the spin, bring the variety into my service games just so I keep her guessing.

It was tricky.Tricky start of the match, for sure.” As the back-to-back defending U.S.

Open champion, the 28-year-old Sabalenka is the first player to reach six consecutive women’s singles quarterfinals in Flushing since Serena Williams (2011-16). To put Sabalenka’s run in perspective, only five players have made more consecutive women’s singles hard-court major quarterfinals than Sabalenka in the Open Era.She’s appeared in nine since the 2022 U.S.

Open, which matches Gabriela Sabatini and Lindsay Davenport. As a result, Sabalenka extended her win streak at the U.S.Open to 18 consecutive matches. The first-ever match between Sabalenka and Townsend didn’t disappoint. After trading off breaks through the first five games ...