By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 28, 2024
Aryna Sabalenka powered past Madison Keys for her 15th consecutive win and a spot in the Beijing quarterfinals.
Photo Source: USTA
Flip the calendar, change the venue, roll out the next elite challenger. No matter, hard court queen Aryna Sabalenka continues to ride the hot hand as the 2024 tennis season winds down.
Second-ranked Sabalenka made it 15 consecutive wins on Wednesday in Beijing, easing past American Madison Keys 6-4, 6-3, in 65 minutes to book her spot in the last eight at the China Open.
Yes, the 26-year-old is making it look easy these days. Yes, she has not lost since the quarterfinals of the National Bank Open in Toronto, with titles at Cincinnati and the US Open in her wake in Beijing. Yes, she's one win shy of her career-best winning streak (16 in 2020 and 2021).
Still, the World No.2 assured reporters that maintaining her red-hot form is not as easy at it looks.
“I made so many sacrifices throughout my career,” she said. “Even like this year was a lot of difficult, really difficult moments for me. I sacrificed a lot for these wins. I mean, that's not easy to get to the point, like, where you're able to win those big titles. It's a lot of hard work, a lot of patience, a lot of mental work, physical work. It's not that easy.”
That said, Sabalenka is enjoying the ride.
She’ll face Czech wunderkind Karolina Muchova next as she continues her bid for a fourth title of 2024, and her first at Beijing.
Muchova handily defeated Cristina Bucsa, 6-2, 6-0 on Wednesday in the Chinese capital.
“When you're able to sacrifice a lot and you're able to work hard and you're able to get these wins, that's the best feeling,” Sabalenka said. “You're just living your best life. You're excited to play your matches. You're excited to face whatever fight you are going to face.”
The Belarusian's fifth career meeting with Keys was not much of a fight, to be fair. Sabalenka broke the American five times and won nine of the final 12 games to improve to 4-1 against the former US Open finalist.
She admits that the last few seasons on tour have enabled her to develop a tolerance for the tough moments she encounters on a tennis court these days.
“All those difficult situations on court are not that difficult for you anymore,” she said. “You actually happy to face it, you happy to challenge yourself. You're actually enjoying all those battles. “I'm grateful for the life I'm living right now. I really hope I'll be able to just keep going, keep pushing myself, keep testing myself, keep fighting.
"Yeah, we'll see at the end of my career, we'll see how far I was able to go."