Aryna Sabalenka survived an almighty scare against Nikola Bartunkova in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka was a set and 2-0 down against the Czech star, before she managed to fight back and confirm her place in the semi-finals of the German tournament.<\/p>\n
The World No. 1 eventually won 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 to continue her progress on grass ahead of Wimbledon, and she will play Jessica Pegula in the final four.<\/p>\n
Despite managing to find the win at the Berlin Open, Sabalenka was incredibly impressed by Bartunkova\u2019s level through their match.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka rarely had the answers for Bartunkova and she was dominated for much of the first half of the match, before she find a way to win.<\/p>\n
Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s coach admits the mistake they\u2019ve made this season \u2013 \u2018It didn\u2019t work out\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s coach shares what he really thought when she said she wanted to \u2018quit tennis\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI just think she played incredible tennis. There was not much I could do, she was just smacking the ball like I don\u2019t even know. It was an unbelievable level,\u201d said the World No. 1 during her post-match interview on court.<\/p>\n \u201cI felt like it was her match and I didn\u2019t know what to do. I think when I did a couple of of approaches to the net during my 0-4 game, it gave me a little bit of confidence that maybe I can sure her that I still have something left. I was trying to stay in the game.<\/p>\n \u201cI tried to find the rhythm,\u201d the Belarusian star continued. \u201cI honestly just think I was lucky, it was a lucky match.\u201d<\/p>\n Sabalenka<\/a> even went so far as to tip Bartunkova for future success on the WTA Tour<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOh my god, what a player, what an incredible young girl and future superstar,\u201d she said. \u201cI was thinking: \u2018Woah, that\u2019s how it feels to play against me!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThere was frustration going on, every ball I would give her she would smack it with a winner. I was really not sure what to do, but I guess I just tried to find this tiger inside of me and fight for this match.\u201d<\/p>\n Bartunkova has been threatening a breakthrough on the WTA Tour and her narrow defeat to Sabalenka in Berlin was another example of her talents.<\/p>\n She has proved she has what it takes on the grass too, having made it to the final of the Birmingham Open at the beginning of the 2026 grass court swing.<\/p>\n She is set to make her Wimbledon<\/a> main draw debut at this year\u2019s Grand Slam and there is every chance she could produce a few scalps in the early rounds.<\/p>\n She is not seeded for Wimbledon and one thing is for sure: none of the top players will want to play her in the first round of the Grand Slam after what she showcased against Sabalenka.<\/p>\n The post Aryna Sabalenka thinks she has found the WTA Tour\u2019s next \u2018superstar\u2019<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka survived an almighty scare against Nikola Bartunkova in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open. Sabalenka was a set and 2-0 down against the Czech star, before she managed to fight back and confirm her place in the semi-finals of the German tournament. The World No. 1 eventually won 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 to continue […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2359\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}