Match Report | WTA Brisbane: Sabalenka and Rybakina Advance Strongly to Quarterfinals

On January 8th Beijing time, the WTA500 Brisbane tournament hosted the third round of the women's singles, where world No.1 Sabalenka beat Romanian player Costică 6-3, 6-3, with the match lasting 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Sabalenka

In hard court competitions, Sabalenka seldom finds herself behind in their head-to-head record, but that was the situation facing Costică in the Brisbane third round. The two had only met once before at the tour level, during the 2023 Miami Open, where Costică won in straight sets.

However, Sabalenka clearly did not recall that previous encounter. In a post-match interview, she said, “I don’t remember the last time we played on hard courts, maybe there’s a reason for that. She’s a very strong player and always makes it tough for me. Especially in the second set, she played exceptionally well. I’m very happy to have closed it out in straight sets. I just focused on my own game, concentrated on this match, and on what I had to do to win.” After advancing to the quarterfinals, Sabalenka will face the winner between 5th seed Keys and 12th seed Schneider.

For Costică, it remains a positive week as she announced she will retire after the 2026 season. At Brisbane, she defeated Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in the first round and then beat 14th seed Ostapenko in the second round.

Former champion Rybakina cruised past 15th seed Badosa 6-3, 6-2 in the third round to secure a quarterfinal spot, maintaining her unbeaten record in Brisbane. Rybakina carried her strong form from the end of last season into the new year, winning straight sets against Zhang Shuai and Badosa. Since the Ningbo tournament last year, she has amassed a 13-match winning streak on the tour (excluding her retirement in Tokyo), equaling her longest career winning streak at the tour level (from Dubai to Miami in 2023).

Rybakina’s quarterfinal opponent will be 11th seed Muchová, who defeated 7th seed Aleksandrova 6-4, 7-5.

(Text and editing by Wang Fei, images by Visual China)