Australian Open 2025 Results: Aryna Sabalenka beats Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova despite fear and reaches semi-finals

For Sabalenka, the 10th Grand Slam semi-final of her career started looking impossible at the beginning of the third set.

Sabalenka’s serve faltered and Pavlyuchenkova broke her serve five times in a row to win the second set and took a break in the third set.

But despite having the momentum on her side, the Russian 27th seed could not capitalize on her early lead and Sabalenka quickly equalised.

The three-time major winner settled herself to move 3-2 up, claiming a crucial break to lead 5-3 before sealing her 19th consecutive win at Melbourne Park.

Sabalenka, who has reached the semi-finals in eight of her last nine Grand Slam matches, later joked that she would give her team a tiger tattoo if they won the Melbourne title.

The 26-year-old said the tiger tattoo on her arm “reminds me to never give up, stay aggressive, stay hungry and push yourself no matter what happens in life.”

She added, “If I win the Australian Open, which hopefully I will, we will celebrate.

“Then I’m going to call a tattoo expert so they wake up with a tiger tattoo.”