Top seed Aryna Sabalenka fought past eighth seed Zheng Qinwen 7-6(3) 6-3 to become the first women’s singles semifinalist at Roland Garros 2025.
Zheng, who defeated Sabalenka in straight sets just last month on the clay courts of the Italian Open, came out strong in their rematch. She broke Sabalenka early for a 2-1 lead and maintained pressure with a series of powerful winners. Despite her opponent’s dominance in the winner count, Sabalenka managed to hold serve for 4-3 after Zheng committed two errors at the net.
Trailing, Sabalenka capitalized on back-to-back double faults from Zheng to earn a break point and leveled the score at 4-4 with a clean winner. The set remained tight, reaching 5-5 after 47 minutes.
At 6-5, Sabalenka had a set point on Zheng’s serve, but the Chinese saved it with a clutch down-the-line winner. Zheng then fired an ace to force a tiebreak, in which Sabalenka came out on top after an initial 2-0 deficit.
Sabalenka was the first to strike in the second set, breaking Zheng for a 3-2 lead. Although the Chinese star responded immediately to level at 3-3, Sabalenka raised her level once again, reeling off the next three games to close out the match. With the victory, she equals her best performance at Roland Garros, having also reached the semifinals in 2023.
Sabalenka will face the winner of Tuesday’s other quarterfinal between defending champion Iga Swiatek and Elina Svitolina for a place in the final.
