Aryna Sabalenka Dominates US Open Quarter-Finals
Aryna Sabalenka is starting to turn Flushing Meadows into her own private fortress.
Under the lights and against a partisan crowd roaring for Taylor Townsend, the two-time defending champion rode out a wild, nervy opening, then slammed the door with trademark ferocity to reach a sixth straight US Open quarter-final. The scoreline – 6-4 6-3 in 75 minutes – looks routine. The match was anything but.
This was Sabalenka’s 18th consecutive win at the US Open, a run stretching back three years and two titles. Now 28, she becomes the first woman since Serena Williams in 2016 to reach six consecutive singles quarter-finals in New York. Williams was also the last to win three straight US Opens. Sabalenka is three victories away from stepping into that rarefied air.
A chaotic start, then a champion’s response
The match opened in chaos. Five straight breaks of serve, both players cracking returns, neither able to settle. Townsend, a doubles specialist with a flair for the occasion, walked on court in a long, black-feathered outfit and promptly made life deeply uncomfortable for the top seed.
Sabalenka, usually the one dictating, found herself dragged into awkward rallies, rushed at the net, forced to hit one more ball under pressure. Townsend fed off the crowd, off the noise, off the sense that something special might be brewing.
Yet when the dust of that early exchange settled, it was Sabalenka who grabbed control. She steadied her serve just enough, tightened the margins on her groundstrokes and, crucially, held when it mattered. She had to serve for the opening set twice, though. Townsend kept swinging, kept coming forward, kept asking questions.
Sabalenka found the answers.
She closed out the first set 6-4, but the tension didn’t drop. Townsend broke early in the second and surged 3-1 ahead, the stadium firmly on her side. This was the moment where Sabalenka’s past would once have haunted her – the kind of combustible, emotionally charged scenario that had previously seen her unravel.
Not this time.
“I was just trying to stay focused on myself, not only point by point but ball by ball,” she said. That mantra showed. Faced with a rising tide, she ripped straight through it, breaking back to love. That game flipped everything.
From 1-3 down, Sabalenka didn’t just recover. She took over.
Dash to the finish
The break back sparked a ruthless sprint to the line. Sabalenka reeled off five games in a row, losing only five points in that stretch. Her serve, shaky early, became a weapon again. The returns that had been solid turned brutal. Townsend, who had done so much right, suddenly found no space to breathe.
The 6-3 second set felt like a statement more than a score: when Sabalenka locks in, very few can live with her on this court.
She knew the stakes went beyond just a quarter-final place. To have any chance of holding onto her world number one ranking, she must lift the trophy again. That pressure sat on her shoulders from the first ball. By the end, it looked like fuel.
Sabalenka has now reached at least the semi-finals in New York every year since 2020. For a player once defined by volatility, this is becoming one of the most reliable partnerships in tennis: Sabalenka and the US Open hard courts.
She was quick to acknowledge Townsend’s role in making it such a test.
“What an incredible player she is, approaching the net, a great returner, moving well, very brave,” Sabalenka said. “You can see how focused she was. It was really challenging playing her, especially here.”
The crowd, largely draped in American colours and firmly behind Townsend, got a nod as well.
“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.”
Noskova survives a rollercoaster
Waiting for Sabalenka in the quarter-finals is Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, who endured a far more tortuous route through a gripping three-setter against Marta Kostyuk.
The Czech sixth seed finally edged through 7-5 5-7 6-4 after two and a half emotionally draining hours, needing six match points to close out a contest that refused to settle.
Noskova had the match in her hands more than once. She served for it in the second set at 5-3, held two match points, and watched Kostyuk claw her way back to steal the set 7-5. The momentum swung, the tension rose, and the match threatened to slip away.
In the decider, they traded breaks again, nerves etched into every service game. Noskova nudged ahead 5-3, only to tighten at the finish line. Two more match points came and went. Kostyuk pushed her to deuce, even earned a break point. Noskova saved it, missed a fifth match point, then finally, on the sixth, dropped to the court in sheer relief.
“I am more than relieved, this match was so tough, emotionally a bit more than physically,” the 21-year-old 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 stands between Sabalenka and yet another semi-final in New York.
A heavyweight quarter-final in the making
Sabalenka arrives with an 18-match winning streak at this tournament, a three-year unbeaten run on these courts, and the knowledge that she has not yet missed the semi-finals here since 2020. Noskova comes in as the reigning Wimbledon champion, battle-hardened from surviving Kostyuk and unafraid of big stages.
Sabalenka is also chasing something more intangible: a season-defining statement. After a fourth-round exit at Wimbledon and with no major title yet in 2026, she is trying to avoid her first Slam-less year since 2022.
Serena’s shadow looms over the numbers. Three US Open titles in a row. Six consecutive quarter-finals. The parallels are now impossible to ignore.
The question is no longer whether Aryna Sabalenka belongs in that conversation. It’s whether anyone left in the draw can stop her from turning history into fact.
