Tag: Aryna Sabalenka

How to Watch Aryna Sabalenka vs Iva Jovic: Live Stream Australian Open Quarterfinal, TV Channel
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Number one-ranked Aryna Sabalenka faces Iva Jovic in the Australian Open women’s singles quarterfinals on Monday.

How to Watch Sabalenka vs Jovic: Australian Open Quarterfinal
- When: Monday, January 26, 2026
- Time: 7:30 PM ET
- TV Channel: ESPN+, ESPN, ESPN2
- Live Stream: Fubo (try for free)
Tonight’s matchup at Rod Laver Arena sees World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka, a two-time Grand Slam champion and one of the favorites to contend for the title, facing 18-year-old Iva Jovic in the quarterfinals of the 2026 Australian Open. Sabalenka advanced with a powerful straight-sets win over Victoria Mboko, showcasing her trademark aggressive baseline game and depth of shotmaking, while Jovic impressed with a dominant 6-0, 6-1 victory over Yulia Putintseva to reach her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. This clash of experience versus rising talent sets the stage for a compelling contrast: Sabalenka’s relentless power and consistency against Jovic’s fearless shotmaking and confidence at this breakout stage.

In the United States, the Sabalenka versus Jovic quarterfinal begins at approximately 7:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast on ESPN2, with full match streams available on ESPN+ for subscribers.

With no previous head-to-head between these two, tonight’s meeting promises intriguing dynamics, and viewers tuning in will get to see whether Jovic’s stunning run continues or Sabalenka’s Grand Slam experience prevails.

This is a great tennis matchup that you will not want to miss; make sure to tune in and catch all the action.

Coverage of the 2026 Australian Open is exclusively broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, & ESPN+, all of which you can live stream with FuboTV.

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January 26, 2026
Need a vacation? Imagine how US Open tennis players feel during their long season

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NEW YORK (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka was on a boat. She was lounging by the pool. The reigning U.S. Open champion was anywhere, it seemed, except a tennis court.

When the professional tours moved to North America for the hard-court tournaments ahead of the trip to New York — where the second round wraps up Thursday — the top-ranked Sabalenka instead was on the Greek island of Mykonos.

“It was very important, because the season had been really intense at that point, and I felt like I was really low (on) energy,” said Sabalenka, who skipped an event in Montreal in late July. “I was motivated, of course, but it felt like everything was going really tough. I couldn’t show my best, and the body was really weak. I felt like, ‘OK, I need to take a little break and a little recharge and come back stronger.’”

Many players understand. Their sport’s season is so long, and the offseason so short, that they don’t wait until the end of the year to chill.

Sometimes, they figure, vacation must come during the season.

“Because if not,” Alex de Minaur, an Australian seeded No. 8 at the U.S. Open, said of the grind, “it’s ongoing.”

The tennis calendar is so full that players need in-season vacations

De Minaur’s recent seasons didn’t end until late November because he was playing in the Davis Cup team competition — and the new seasons started in late December.

So de Minaur and his fiancée, British player Katie Boulter, have been getting away from it all, even if it’s just for a week, after Wimbledon ends in July to have what he called “a little bit of a mental reset for the second part of the year.”

Not everyone has the luxury, or even the desire, to do that, for various reasons.

Some US Open players don’t think they can afford to take a break

Sometimes, players are coming back from an injury absence and want to make up for lost time, lest their rankings drop too much. Or perhaps they’ve been playing well and want to keep the momentum going. Or find themselves in a rut they want to play their way out of.

For someone like 37-year-old Adrian Mannarino of France, who in January 2024 became the oldest man to break into the ATP top 20, there is a benefit to embracing a philosophy that essentially amounts to “all work and no play.”

“I’m the type of player who likes to (compete) a lot, so when I retire, that’s when I’m going to take a lot of vacations,” he said. “It’s sometimes hard to get out of the (playing) rhythm: Going on holiday to try to break the stress (of) mental things, then getting back to it, is not easy. And with my game, I feel like I need to play a lot to get the rhythm, and I don’t like to get out of my rhythm.

“There’s a time for work and a time for holidays — and hopefully in the next few years, I’ll have more time for holidays.”

Vacations during the season don’t exist in team sports, but they do in tennis

The idea of taking vacation during the season doesn’t exist in team sports. For players in the NFL, NBA, NHL or Major League Baseball, there is an ample offseason, even for clubs that win a championship, to travel and rest, then begin working out again.

Boulter waited and wonders if it cost her. There was a need to add a tournament this summer to meet the WTA Tour requirement of six 500-level events, knowing she was going to be short one while playing on Britain’s Billie Jean King Cup team. She dropped four of five matches coming into the U.S. Open, then was eliminated in the first round.

“The times that I should have had periods of break, I don’t really feel like I chose myself,” Boulter said. “I kind of chose other things bigger than myself, and I think that’s why I kind of ended up at this point.”

US Open players can decide whether or not to hit the beach

Ajla Tomljanovic, who lost to Coco Gauff in the first round in New York on Tuesday night, said the answer is simple: “It’s your choice whether you play or not,” she said. “So for me, if I need a break, and I feel like I want to go on a vacation, I take it.”

She was planning for some practice after Wimbledon. But, like Sabalenka, Tomljanovic decided to hit the beach, instead.

“I felt like there was enough time to sneak that in,” she said. “And also, it’s very good for my body, as well. I have to be mindful of it. I wasn’t complaining about a few days off.”

___

AP Tennis Writer Howard Fendrich contributed to this report.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis

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October 14, 2025
Ons Jabeur is in a second consecutive Wimbledon final. She plays Marketa Vondrousova for the title

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WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — There was a time — a year ago; six months ago, even — that Ons Jabeur might not have recovered from the deficit she found herself in during the Wimbledon semifinals. Down a set. Down a break in the second set. So close to being just a game from defeat.

She credits a sports psychologist with helping her understand how to deal with those on-court situations, with managing to keep her focus, keep her strokes on-target. Thanks in part to that, and a steadiness down the stretch at Centre Court on Thursday, Jabeur is on her way to a second consecutive final at the All England Club and her third title match in the past five Grand Slam tournaments.

Now she wants to win a trophy. The sixth-seeded Jabeur earned the right to play for one again by beating big-hitting Aryna Sabalenka 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.

Ons Jabeur or Marketa Vondrousova will become a first-time Grand Slam champion when they play each other in the Wimbledon women’s final.

Daniil Medvedev had to skip the Wimbledon tournament last year but not because he wanted to. The 2021 U.S.

There’s no better way to escape the intense heatwave in Tunisia than to head inside and watch Wimbledon on TV when Ons Jabeur is playing.

Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz will meet in the Wimbledon final. Both won their semifinals in straight sets.

“I’m very proud of myself, because maybe old me would have lost the match today and went back home already. But I’m glad that I kept digging very deep and finding the strength,” said Jabeur, a 28-year-old from Tunisia who already was the only Arab woman and only North African woman to reach a major final.

“I’m learning to transform the bad energy into a good one,” Jabeur said, explaining that she was able to get over the anger she felt after the first set. “Some things I have no control over: She can ace any time. She can hit the big serve, even if I have a break point. That’s frustrating a bit. But I’m glad that I’m accepting it and I’m digging deep to just go and win this match — and, hopefully, this tournament.”

To do that, Jabeur will need to get past Marketa Vondrousova, a left-hander from the Czech Republic, on Saturday. Vondrousova became the first unseeded women’s finalist at Wimbledon since Billie Jean King in 1963 by eliminating Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-3.

Like Jabeur, Vondrousova has been to a major final before. Like Jabeur, she’s never won one, having been the runner-up at the 2019 French Open as a teen.

“We’re both hungry,” Jabeur said.

So far, Jabeur is 0-2 in Slam finals. She lost to Elena Rybakina at the All England Club last July and to Iga Swiatek at the U.S. Open last September.

Jabeur’s win over No. 2 Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion in January, followed victories against three other major title winners: No. 3 Rybakina, No. 9 Petra Kvitova and Bianca Andreescu.

“I want to make my path worth it,” Jabeur said.

Thursday’s triumph, which came by collecting 10 of the last 13 games, prevented Sabalenka from replacing Swiatek at No. 1 in the rankings.

“I had so many opportunities,” said Sabalenka, a 25-year-old from Belarus who was not allowed to compete at Wimbledon last year because all players from her country and from Russia were banned over the war in Ukraine. “Overall, I didn’t play my best tennis today. It was just, like, a combo of everything. A little bit of nerves, a little bit of luck for her at some points.”

Jabeur trailed 4-2 in the second set when she began to turn things around. But not before Sabalenka came within a point from leading 5-3 after Jabeur put a forehand into the net and fell onto her back on the grass of Centre Court.

She dusted herself off and broke to take that game and begin the comeback. When she delivered a backhand return winner to force the match to a third set, Jabeur held her right index finger to her ear, then raised it and wagged it as she strutted to the changeover.

Sabalenka’s shots missed the mark repeatedly. She finished with far more unforced errors than Jabeur: The margins were 14-5 in the last set and 45-15 for the match.

“I was little bit emotionally down, then she was up,” said Sabalenka, who hit 10 aces but also double-faulted five times.

A break put Jabeur up 4-2 in the third, but there was still some work to be done. Sabalenka, as powerful a ball-striker as there is on tour, erased four match points before Jabeur converted her fifth with a 103 mph ace.

In the first semifinal, the 43rd-ranked Vondrousova reeled off seven consecutive games in one stretch against the 76th-ranked Svitolina, who returned from maternity leave just three months ago. After surprisingly beating Swiatek in the quarterfinals, she was trying to become the first woman from Ukraine to make it to the title match at a major tennis tournament.

Svitolina received loud support from thousands in the crowd at the main stadium — Ukraine’s ambassador to Britain was in the Royal Box — as applause and yells echoed off the closed roof.

Svitolina says she plays more calmly nowadays, something she attributed to the dual motivations of playing for her baby daughter, who was born in October, and of playing for her home country, where the ongoing war began in February 2022, when Russia invaded with help from Belarus.

“It’s a lot of responsibility, a lot of tension. I try to balance it as much as I can. Sometimes it gets maybe too much,” Svitolina said. “But I don’t want to (make it) an excuse.”

Vondrousova missed about six months last season because of two operations on her left wrist. She visited England last year with a cast on that arm to enjoy London as a tourist and to watch her best friend and doubles partner, Miriam Kolodziejova, try to qualify for Wimbledon.

“It’s not always easy to come back. You don’t know if you can play at this level and if you can be back at the top and back at these tournaments,” Vondrousova said. “I just feel like I’m just grateful to be on a court again, to play without pain.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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July 14, 2023
Rybakina meets Sabalenka in Australian Open women’s final

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MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Aryna Sabalenka figures she’ll feel some jitters when she steps out on court to face Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open women’s final.

Saturday’s contest is, after all, Sabalenka’s first singles title match at a Grand Slam tournament. Rybakina is more familiar with this stage: She won Wimbledon a little more than six months ago.

“That’s OK, to feel little bit nervous. It’s a big tournament, big final,” Sabalenka said. “If you’re going to start trying to do something about that, it’s going to become bigger, you know?”

She is seeded No. 5; Rybakina is No. 22. Sabalenka is a 24-year-old from Belarus; Rybakina is a 23-year-old who was born in Moscow and began representing Kazakhstan in 2018 when that country offered to fund her tennis career.

“For me, this time, I would say it was a bit easier, compared to Wimbledon, when I was playing for the first time (in a major) quarters, semis, final,” said Rybakina, the first woman since Jennifer Capriati in 2001 to beat three past Grand Slam champions during one edition at Melbourne Park.

That run includes victories over three-time Slam winner and Iga Swiatek, 2012-13 Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka and 2017 French Open champ Jelena Ostapenko, along with Danielle Collins, the runner-up at Melbourne a year ago.

Both Rybakina and Sabalenka are among the most powerful players on tour, using big serves and groundstrokes to overwhelm opponents. It’s a style that evokes the way the Williams sisters went about winning when they began to transform the sport — and rather different from the way the current No. 1, Iga Swiatek, and her predecessor, the retired Ash Barty, went about things.

“As a matchup, I mean, it’s going to be a lot of mistakes, a lot of winners, I’m sure about that, from both sides, because there is going to be a lot of pressure,” said Stefano Vukov, Rybakina’s coach. “I think who serves well tomorrow goes through. That’s my feeling.”

Both finalists are indeed capable of terrific serving, which was not always the case for Sabalenka.

She has won a tournament-high 89% of her service games, holding in 49 of 55, meaning she has been broken an average of just once per match. It’s a significant development for someone who struggled mightily with double-faulting last year, accumulating nearly 400 over the course of the season, including more than 20 in some matches.

But Sabalenka reworked the mechanics on her serve during a five-day session less than a month before the U.S. Open, where she got to the semifinals. Something else Sabalenka has improved that has made her a better player: the way she manages her mindset during a match.

Instead of “screaming after some bad points or some errors” the way she used to, Sabalenka said she now tries to “hold myself, stay calm, just think about the next point. … Just less negative emotions.”

Rybakina rarely lets so much as the slightest trace of emotion show, even when she clinched the championship at the All England Club.

Both tend to seek to put an end to points with quick strikes from the baseline.

Sabalenka has managed to keep the ledger tilted quite a bit in her favor, accumulating 196 winners (32.7 per match) and 136 unforced errors (22.7 per match). Rybakina’s numbers are more even, averaging 26.3 winners and 24.8 unforced errors.

This will be their fourth head-to-head meeting, and Sabalenka is 3-0 so far, winning each in three sets, although they haven’t played each other since Wimbledon in 2021.

Since then, Sabalenka’s coach, Anton Dubrov observed, “Aryna lost (her) serve. Then she found the serve. Meanwhile, Rybakina won a Slam. They both kind of came here from different directions. So I would say … all previous matches don’t matter at all. It’s going to be something really new.”

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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January 28, 2023
Sabalenka stuns Swiatek, faces Garcia for WTA Finals title

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Aryna Sabalenka stood stoically ever so briefly, before crouching for an emphatic fist pump to go with a scream.

Yeah, the seventh-ranked woman in the eight-player WTA Finals couldn’t hide the emotion, because she knew exactly what she had done.

Sabalenka ended world No. 1 Iga Swiatek’s 15-match winning streak against top-10 opponents, taking a 6-2, 2-6, 6-1 victory in the semifinals of the season-ending event Sunday night.

The stunner puts Sabalenka in final Monday night against No. 6 Caroline Garcia, who streamrolled Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-2 and can become just the second Frenchwoman to win WTA Finals after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005.

Swiatek, the French Open and U.S. Open champion and runaway leader with eight tour victories, cruised through three round-robin victories, losing just 13 games to give her the longest winning run against top-10 opponents since Steffi Graf won 17 straight in 1987.

Just like that, it was over when the 21-year-old from Poland lost the last five games against a player she had beaten in all four meetings this season.

Sabalenka was No. 1 when she beat Swiatek in round-robin play at last year’s WTA Finals, but neither player made the semifinals.

With that much out of the way for both, Sabalenka showed how comfortable she was on the temporary indoor hard court at Dickies Arena. Nine of her 10 career victories have come on hard courts.

“I just want to make sure that every time she plays against me, she knows that she really has to work hard to get a win,” said Sabalenka, whose fourth loss this year to Swiatek was a three-setter in the U.S. Open semifinals. “Only because of this thinking, I was able to play at this amazing level tonight.”

Swiatek fell behind one break in the final set with two wide forehands before another one put her down two breaks. Sabalenka gave herself a match point with her 12th and final ace, then hit another serve so good, Swiatek’s lunging return was wide and long.

After a tour-best 67 victories and a 37-match unbeaten run from February to June that was the longest in women’s tennis in a quarter-century, this wasn’t quite the ending Swiatek had in mind.

“In the third, I just started making mistakes from shots that I wouldn’t make mistakes usually,” Swiatek said. “At the beginning of the first set, I just wanted to be kind of focused. Maybe I didn’t realize soon enough that I should be more pepped up.”

Garcia was playing just 24 hours after beating Daria Kasatkina in a tense 80-minute third set to secure the last spot in the semifinals, but needed just 74 minutes total for a career-best fourth victory over a top-five opponent this season.

Garcia never trailed, dominating the fifth-ranked Sakkari in winners (21-8) and aces (6-0).

“I don’t know,” Garcia said when asked where she found the energy to dominate after the quick turnaround. “Yesterday, I was a little bit tired, but it was nothing unusual after such a big match.”

Garcia has advanced out of group play in both WTA Finals appearances. The 29-year-old lost in the semifinals in the eight-player event five years ago, which also was the most recent time a player older than Garcia reached the semis (Venus Williams).

“I guess I’m five years older, maybe five years wiser,” said Garcia, who was No. 74 about this time last year. “You try to learn from everything. I’ve got a good team behind me, supporting me when I was a little bit doubting myself.”

Sakkari also was among the five players who have reached the semis their first two times since the round-robin format was reintroduced in 2003. She lost in the semis last year.

Garcia used a 120 mph ace to help erase a break chance for Sakkari and extend her lead to 4-0 in the second set.

Garcia’s sixth and final ace answered a double fault that gave Sakkari another break point. Garcia closed out that game for a 5-1 lead on the way to a 3-0 career record against Sakkari.

Sakkari had three straight-set victories in the tournament after coming in with just one win over a top-10 opponent this season.

The 27-year-old from Greece never recovered after dropping her first set of the week, finishing with 11 more unforced errors (19) than winners.

“Not taking away anything from her, I played a very average match from my side,” said Sakkari, who didn’t qualify for the WTA Finals until the final event of the regular season. “I wasn’t sharp. I wasn’t energized.”

Defending doubles champs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova advanced to the title match with a 7-6(5), 6-2 semifinal victory over Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko.

The Czech duo will play Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens, 6-1, 6-1 winners over Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs.

The event was moved to Texas from China over concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who accused a former government official there of sexual assault. Coronavirus restrictions also played a part in the decision. It’s the first WTA Finals in the U.S. since 2005.

. ———

AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP—Sports

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November 6, 2022
Winless Pegula tries to see bright side of WTA Finals debut

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Jessica Pegula dropped her head to the table in front of the microphone, smiling while hoping there might be just one victory awaiting the American in her WTA Finals debut.

She couldn’t even get a consolation prize.

The Buffalo native was New York honest about going winless in all three singles matches, capped by a 6-3, 7-5 round-robin loss to Aryna Sabalenka on Friday before a loss in her final doubles match that night with fellow American Coco Gauff left her 0 for 6.

Pegula also tried to remember the strong season that got her to Texas with a No. 3 ranking, and made her and Gauff the first Americans to debut at the WTA Finals in singles and doubles since Lindsay Davenport in 1994.

“I keep telling myself I had such a great year, but that’s the tough thing with tennis is you end the year really well and then I come here and I lose all my matches,” the 28-year-old said. “I mean, I don’t think I’ve lost this many matches in a short amount of time, this is like the same amount in like three months or something, almost?”

No. 7 Sabalenka finished 2-1 in group play and advanced to the semifinals when fifth-ranked Maria Sakkari won the first set of the late match against Ons Jabeur, eliminating the No. 2 player. Sakkari, who went on to a 6-2, 6-3 victory, had already qualified for the semis.

Sabalenka, who didn’t qualify for the semifinals in her WTA Finals debut last year in Guadalajara, knew a straight-sets victory improved her chances of advancing.

The 24-year-old got it — and a fourth consecutive straight-sets win over Pegula — despite double-faulting three times serving for the match at 5-3. She did the same thing earlier in the second set.

Pegula had a chance to force a tiebreaker on her serve, but Sabalenka finished her off with a backhand crosscourt winner on her second match point.

“I kept telling myself just stay focused, just keep fighting,” Sabalenka said. “It doesn’t matter, two or three sets. Just keep fighting. Just get the win, get extra points and then move on.”

The hard-hitting Sabalenka never trailed in overpowering Pegula from the start, finishing with a 26-13 edge in winners and five aces.

Even with her attacking style, Sabalenka had fewer unforced errors, finishing with 23 to 26 for Pegula, who mumbled to herself after many of hers.

“I feel like this week was a little bit of a grind,” Pegula said. “It definitely feels like I hit a wall a little bit today, just as far as physically, mentally.”

Pegula qualified for the WTA Finals on the indoor hard-court at Dickies Arena by reaching the semifinals in San Diego. Then a week before showing up, she got her first title of the season — and second of her career — by beating Sakkari in Guadalajara.

While saying she underestimated the difficulty of playing singles and doubles this week, Pegula didn’t regret it. She and Gauff, already eliminated, were blown out in their finale 6-2, 6-1 by Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova. The Czech duo was already in the semifinals and finished 3-0 in group play.

Gauff also is out of contention in singles with an 0-2 record, the No. 4 player set to wrap up against top-ranked Iga Swiatek in the final singles match of group play Saturday night.

“We’re used to playing both,” Pegula said. “But obviously this week, I think maybe the end of the year, it just kind of caught up, I don’t know about her, but it caught up to me a little bit.”

American Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands advanced to the semifinals in doubles with a 7-6(2), 6-3 victory over China’s Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan.

Sakkari took a 5-1 lead in the first set against Jabeur and was never threatened in her third victory over a top 10 player this week — all in straight sets — after coming in with just one all season.

“It was higher than the rest of the season, for sure,” Sakkari said of her confidence coming in. “But it wasn’t ultra high that I was feeling, like, unstoppable or anything. I was feeling good with my game.”

Sabalenka didn’t qualify for the season-ending event until the last week of the regular season in Guadalajara, and was two points from defeat in her opener before rallying to beat Jabeur, a U.S. Open finalist this year.

“That’s what I was thinking about, that no matter what happens, just win another match,” said Sabalenka, who has won nine of her 10 career titles on hard courts. “Just do it for the future. Even if I’m not gonna get through this group, I’ll take positive things from this one.”

She gets to play for more now.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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November 5, 2022