By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday April 16, 2021
Aryna Sabalenka powered past Simona Halep for her biggest career win on clay to set a Stuttgart final with Ashleigh Barty.
Photo Source: Getty
Aryna Sabalenka has become a force on the WTA’s faster surfaces over the last few years, but the 22-year-old Belarusian has not achieved the same success on clay over the last few seasons. That trend appears to be changing.
Sabalenka notched the biggest win of her clay-court career on Saturday in Stuttgart as she powered past former Roland-Garros champion and current World No.3 Simona Halep, 6-3, 6-2, in 66 dominant minutes.
The victory is by far Sabalenka’s best on the surface—she had never notched a Top 20 win on clay prior to this year’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix—and she will look to top it on Sunday when she faces World No.1 Ash Barty in the final.
Sabalenka has now won 9 of her last 11 on clay since the tour restarted again last August.
She says her evolution on clay has been a work in progress.
"I've worked a lot on the touch game on the short crosscourt game, on the aggressive game, so I've worked a lot," she said. "Yeah, for sure it says that I am on the right way and I'm doing the right things. I would say my game is more like, not like a clay court game, but I can play on the clay, and I think this big work which I put on my game, it's a good step forward and gave me a lot of power, especially on the clay court."
And Sabalenka, with Barty looming in the final, says she doesn't want to celebrate or fixate too much on the victory over Halep. It's about staying level and marching forward.
"Yeah, definitely, this and for now I'm playing pretty well on the clay court and I'm happy with the level, but there is still something else to learn and something else to improve, and of course the last two matches I won it's, wow, that's crazy and that is saying a lot, and as I said, I'm on the right way, and I just have to keep working on the things which I am working on and it's going to bring me maybe a few more steps," she said.
Barty outlasted Elina Svitolina, 46, 7-6(5), 6-2 in Saturday’s first semifinal, in two hours and five minutes. It was Barty’s second consecutive comeback from a set down. She toppled former champion Karolina Pliskova 2-6, 6-1, 7-5 on Friday.
Svitolina was searching for her sixth career win over a reigning World No.1 on Saturday, but couldn’t hold on to her lead against Barty.
“It was a really tough battle today,” she said. “I think we both played some good tennis and I wish I could play a little bit better the second set in the end of the tiebreak and in the end it was a high level match. I think I will take a lot of positives out of this.”
Barty is bidding to become the first World No.1 to take home the Stuttgart title since Justine Henin in 2007. The Aussie has now won her last nine matches against Top 10 competition.
She has split her six matches with Sabalenka, which all took place on hard. In their most recent battle, Barty won in three sets at Miami, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-3, in quarterfinal action.