French Open 2024: Second seed Sabalenka bludgeons Navarro for quarterfinal spot
World number two Aryna Sabalenka pummelled American Emma Navarro 6-2, 6-3 on Monday to march into the French Open 2024 quarterfinal with an emphatic performance that kept her on course for her first title in Paris.
Navarro had stunned the Belarusian at Indian Wells in March but Sabalenka broke her to love at the very start and followed that up with another break to race through the first set in 30 minutes.
The Australian Open champion, unbeaten now in 11 straight matches at the majors, completely overpowered Navarro with her thundering baseline game and attacked the American’s weak second serve on every opportunity.
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An early break in the second set courtesy of yet another screaming winner put Sabalenka 2-1 up and left Navarro with a mountain to climb.
The American tried to mix things up and managed to hang on for a little longer but could not avoid the inevitable, with the 26-year-old Belarusian, looking to add to her two Grand Slam titles so far, wrapping up proceedings on her first match point.
She will face either Varvara Gracheva of France or teenager Mirra Andreeva in the last eight.