|
Barty recorded six aces while dispatching
Spanish wildcard Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-3, while Sabalenka notched
a 6-2, 6-3 triumph over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.
Saturday's clash will mark the second time in less than two
weeks that Barty and Sabalenka will meet in a final. The
Australian rallied for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Sabalenka to win
in Stuttgart on April 25.
Sabalenka, who had 21 winners against 11 unforced errors in
Thursday's semis, is ready to take another swing at Barty.
"Physically I have to be ready for this match," said Sabalenka,
who is from Belarus. "She's No.1, she's great. I played her in
Stuttgart. It's not an easy game. I will do everything I can to
prepare myself as good as I can. Just looking forward for this
battle."
Barty holds a 4-3 edge in career matches against Sabalenka.
Barty played her semifinal match prior to knowing there would be
another tussle with Sabalenka.
But she was pleased with her performance and the victory was her
16th straight on clay surfaces.
"I've learned a lot more about it, without a doubt," Barty said
of clay. "I promise you, I'm still counting down to the grass
court season. It's one of my favorite times of the year. I think
the memories and the learnings now that we're getting from the
red clay has been really cool, to be able to challenge myself in
different ways."
Thursday's victory also was important to Barty because she was
upset by Bodosa 6-4, 6-3 last month in the quarterfinals of the
Volvo Car Open at Charleston, S.C.
"You have to learn from every game, every match you play against
an opponent," Barty said. "I definitely learned a lot from the
match we played in Charleston. There was a small adjustment. I
think just learning from some of her patterns, tendencies that
came through and showed through in that match in Charleston.
"I think I was just able to control the court a little bit
better."
L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo
Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus upset fourth-seeded Tamara
Zidansek of Slovenia to advance to the quarterfinals at
Saint-Malo, France.
Second-seeded Rebecca Peterson of Sweden also moved on with a
4-6, 6-4, 4-0 win over Russia's Anna Kalinskaya, who retired in
the third set.
Russia's Varvara Gracheva beat Bulgaria's Viktoriya Tomova when
the latter retired. Gracheva won the first set 6-4 and the
second was tied at 5-5.
--Field Level Media
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |
|
