Sabalenka blasts past Svitolina to reach French Open semi-final

Spectators on the centre court booed the Ukrainian Elina Svitolina on Tuesday after she failed to shake hands with her Belarusian opponent Aryna Sabalenka who had just beaten her in straight sets to advance to the semi-final at the French Open.

Svitolina has been an outspoken critic of the tennis authorities for not banning Russian or Belarusian players since the Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered his country's armed forces into Ukraine via Belarus in February 2022.

And the geopolitics ultimately overshadowed the quarter-final encounter between Svitolina, a former world number three, and the second seed who has been tipped as one of the favourites for the crown.

Svitolina's drop to 132 in the world followed her decision to take time away from the women's tour to have a baby with the French tennis star Gael Monfils.

There were passages of the panache and power that drove her up the rankings but too often also the frailties of absence from the circuit.

The 28-year-old cracked at the business end of the first set allowing Sabalenka the chance to serve for the opener.

She accepted the invitation with minimum fuss.
Chance
Svitolina broke Sabalenka at the start of the second set but could not consolidate her advantage.

And from 0-2 down, the 24-year-old Belarusian outmuscled her opponent to lead 3-2 with her service to follow.

A raised clenched left fist after securing the advantage suggested she knew the end was in sight.

Sabalenka moved swiftly to 4-2 and though Svitolina held serve to stop the sequence, she found herself serving to stay in the match at 3-5 down after 90 minutes of play. 

She brought it back to 5-4. Two wild swings from Sabalenka hinted at nerves but two clean forehand winners and a strong serve took her to match point.

Victory
She squandered that with a forehand into the net but another battering from her forehand wing set up the second match point.

Fittingly a 14th forehand winner brought the match to a close before opening another round of geopolitical skirmishing. 

On-court interviewer Alex Corretja saliently sidestepped asking about the snub allowing Sabalenka to move swiftly onto the statutory pleasantries.

"I'm super happy to be in the semis," she said. "The atmosphere was amazing for both of us.

"Elina is a tough opponent and it is amazing what she has done since giving birth last October. She deserves respect."

Sabalenka will play the unseeded Czech Karolina Muchova who beat the 2921 finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals for the first time in Paris.