By Richard Pagliaro | Thursday, January 22, 2026
Photo credit: Australian Open Facebook
Aryna Sabalenka has worked to incorporate finesse and serve-and-volley skills to her explosive game.
Today, the world No. 1 showed strong survival skills to subdue Anastasia Potapova 7-6(4), 7-6(7) and advance to the Australian Open fourth round for the sixth straight year.
In her toughest test of the tournament by far, Sabalenka squandered a 4-0 second-set lead then staved off four set points in the tiebreaker.
One point from realizing her vision of a fourth set, Potapova tightened up and lost her way as Sabalenka stormed through six of the last seven points to tame trouble.
Two-time AO champion Sabalenka has advanced to the round of 16 in her last 13 Grand Slam appearances.
It wasn’t easy today, but Sabalenka showed her fighting spirit.
The top seed smacked 34 winners against 44 unforced errors in a tight two hour, two-minute test.
Sabalenka, who improved to 31-6 at the Australian Open, will face Montreal champion Victoria Mboko for a quarterfinal spot.
The 17th-seeded Mboko out-dueled 14th-seeded Clara Tauson 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3, in two hours 19 minutes.
It will be the first clash between 22-time WTA Tour title holder Sabalenka and Mboko, who reached the Adelaide final earlier this month.