‘She’ll hate me for a day or two, but I can handle that’

Aryna Sabalenka

Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka put her close friendship with Paula Badosa aside on Thursday to sweep past the Spaniard into a third successive Australian Open final and stay on track for a 26-year first.

The Belarusian World No.1 cruised to victory 6-4, 6-2 at the Rod Laver Arena. The hard, fast courts of Melbourne Park have been the 26-year-old's happy place.

She has now won 20 straight matches at the Australian Open to close in on a third consecutive crown, a landmark yet to be breached
this century.

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Paula Badosa

The last person to achieve the feat was Martina Hingis in 1999 and only four other women have completed the three-peat, Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Steffi Graf and Monica Seles who was in the stadium watching.

"Honestly, I'm so proud of myself. I'm proud of my team that we're able to put ourselves in such a situation," Sabalenka said of being on the cusp of a third title. "It's a privilege, you know. If I'm able to put my name into history, it will mean a lot. It will mean the world to me."

Sabalenka last year described Badosa as her "best friend" and "soulmate" and said she was "super happy" that they got to play each other on such a big stage. "A tough match, tough battle," she said.

"I hope she's still my friend. I'm sure she'll hate me for the next hour, day or two, but I'm okay with that, I can handle that. After that I think we are back to being friends, back to go out together and go shopping," the Belarusian added.

Badosa had started the first set strongly before Sabalenka grew into the game while the Spaniard's error count began to mount.

The Belarusian then unleashed her bruising baseline game in the second set, to which the Spaniard had no answer to. Sabalenka will face 19th seed Madison Keys in the final here on Saturday.

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