SYDNEY, January 27. /TASS/. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus advanced to the semifinals of this year’s first Grand Slam series tournament, the 2026 Australian Open on Tuesday, defeating Iva Jovic from the United States.

The top-seeded Sabalenka, who is playing at the tournament under a neutral status, sailed past her 29th-seeded opponent in the quarterfinals with a confident straight sets win (6-3; 6-0).

It took the Belarusian player less than 90 minutes to take down her 18-year-old opponent with a bagel in the second set.

"She's a young, great player. Super happy to get this win in straight sets, happy with the level I played today and yeah, (she's an) amazing player," the official WTA website quoted Sabalenka as saying after the match against Jovic.

"The second set, I felt like I had to step in and put even more pressure on her," the Belarusian tennis star, who reached today her fourth consecutive Australian Open semifinal, continued. "Because I can see that she's young, she's hungry, and I could tell during the match that no matter the score, she's still going to be there trying."

Sabalenka, last year’s runner-up, will look to return to the final when she plays in the semifinals against 12th-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina, who cleared the quarterfinals on Tuesday also with a straight sets win over 3rd-seeded Coco Gauff from the United States 6-1; 6-2.

It took Svitolina, 31, also less than an hour to deal with Gauff and just like Sabalenka she dropped only three games to take down the 21-year-old American.

"Not bad, not bad at all," the WTA official website quoted Svitolina after the match. "Always been my dream to come back in Top 10 after maternity leave, that's always been my goal…"

"For me it's all about trying to find new ways to win now," Svitolina continued speaking at a press conference. "There are so many young players. There's so many aggressive players who, if you're not at your best, they are just taking the match from you. So you have to evolve your game. You have to be better."

"I think I dealt with it well. As Coco [Gauff] is such a great champion, you know, she came back couple of times in our matches being one set down. For me, I tried to keep building, keep trying to play well and tried to really stay focused from the start until the end."

Belarusian Sabalenka, 27, the WTA's top-ranked player, holds 22 WTA (the Women’s Tennis Association) titles and four Grand Slam titles (2023, 2024 Australian Open, 2024, 2025 US Open).

The 2026 Australian Open tournament is being played on hard courts at Melbourne Park between January 18 and February 1 and has a purse of some $75 million in prize money up for grabs. The season’s first Grand Slam, this year marks the 114th edition of the tournament. Italy’s Jannik Sinner and American Madison Keys are the reigning Australian Open champions in men’s and women’s singles, respectively.

Russian and Belarusian players’ neutral status at tennis tournaments

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow's special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC's recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations moved to exclude athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The International Tennis Federation (ITF) ruled on March 1, 2022, to suspend the membership of the Russian and Belarusian national tennis federations while also canceling all previously scheduled tennis tournaments in the two countries.

On March 14, 2022, the ITF also confirmed its prohibition on the Russian and Belarusian national tennis teams from participating in the 2022 Davis Cup and the 2022 Billie Jean King Cup.