{"id":45022,"date":"2026-09-09T12:31:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45022"},"modified":"2026-09-09T12:31:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T10:31:00","slug":"sabalenka-survives-noskova-test-to-reach-us-open-semis","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/sabalenka-survives-noskova-test-to-reach-us-open-semis\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka survives Noskova test to reach US Open semis"},"content":{"rendered":"<div data-olk-copy-source=\"MessageBody\">World number one Aryna Sabalenka survived her toughest test of the tournament to beat Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 7-6 (1), 3-6 7-6 (10-7) on Tuesday and reach the US Open semi-finals for a sixth consecutive year.<\/div>\n<div id=\"x_x_ms-outlook-mobile-signature\">\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Defending champion Sabalenka had not dropped a set before facing the Czech sixth seed, who fired 18 aces and saved seven of nine break points but faltered when leading by a break in the final set.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\"><span class=\"x_spanWithBackgroundColor\">Sabalenka next plays the winner of an all-American clash between Jessica Pegula and Emma Navarro. Meanwhile, Pegula beats Emma Navarro to make US Open semifinals<br \/>\n<\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Belarusian broke in the second game, whipping a forehand into the corner that Noskova did not even attempt to chase down, but the Czech broke back with a pair of powerful groundstrokes from the baseline in the ninth.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sabalenka sprinted through the opening set tiebreak before a double fault gave Noskova a 4-2 lead in the second set. She screamed in frustration when a pair of double faults midway through the third helped her opponent secure another break.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Sabalenka recovered to level in the eighth game, however, and was in her element in the decisive tiebreak, where she clinched it with an ace.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u2014Reuters\u2014<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21159,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-45022","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Sabalenka recovered to level in the eighth game.","published_date":"","news_description":"Sabalenka recovered to level in the eighth game.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45022","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45022\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45024,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45022\/revisions\/45024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45022"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45022"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}