2nd seed Aryna Sabalenka squares off against Irina-Camelia Begu in the semifinals of the Adelaide International 1 on Saturday.
The Belarusian star received a bye into the second round. She has not dropped a set so far in the competition and will be confident of reaching yet another final.
Sabalenka got her season underway with a closely-contested encounter against Liudmila Samsonova in the round of 16. The match ended in two sets but both of them were decided in tiebreakers. The match ended 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-3). Sabalenka followed it up with a relatively comfortable win against the rejuvenated Marketa Vondrousova in straight sets 6-3, 7-5.
The experienced campaigner has lost just one set in the three matches she has played so far. That came very early in the tournament in the first set of her first-round match against Shelby Rogers.
Begu came back from behind to defeat the American star 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. The former followed it up with a drubbing against the 2017 French Open champion, Jelena Ostapenko. The match ended 6-3, 6-0, as Begu won the last 11 games of the match. She carried the momentum into the quarterfinals and got the better of fourth seed Veronika Kudermetova in straight sets 7-5, 6-4. These wins must have given Begu a lot of confidence. She will know that there is very little margin for error when she takes on world No. 5 Sabalenka.
Irina-Camelia Begu got the better of Aryna Sabalenka in the 2022 Miami Open in straight sets. Therefore, the Romanian veteran has a 1-0 lead in the head-to-head scoreline.
Prediction: Aryna Sabalenka to win in three sets.
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