Aryna Sabalenka Survives Epic US Open Quarterfinal Against Linda Noskova
NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka didn’t so much win a tennis match on Arthur Ashe Stadium as drag herself through a storm and come out swinging.
The world No. 1 is still standing. Barely. She keeps her ranking for at least one more day and moves two wins from a US Open three‑peat after outlasting Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova 7-6(1), 3-6, 7-6(7) in a quarterfinal that felt like it might never let go.
Two hours and 22 minutes.
Two tiebreaks.
One second-serve ace on match point that Noskova could only watch fly by.
A flying start, then a freefall
For a set and a bit, Sabalenka looked like the ruthless version that has owned this tournament for the past two years.
The serve that deserted her in the fourth round against Taylor Townsend suddenly snapped into place. She raced to a 3-0 lead in the opening set, hitting her spots, dictating rallies, and bullying the No. 6 seed from Czechia off the baseline.
Serving at 5-3 for the set, she had the match in her grip. Then came the double fault, the primal scream, and the crack in the door Noskova needed.
Sabalenka’s emotions spilled over, her timing slipped, and Noskova pounced. Three games in a row for the 19-year-old, who dragged the set to a tiebreak with the poise of someone who has been here before, not someone in her first US Open quarterfinal.
That’s when the four-time Grand Slam champion snapped back. Sabalenka tore through the breaker 7-1, flattening returns, stepping in on every short ball, and restoring order with a ruthless, almost angry precision.
Order didn’t last.
Noskova swings back
The second set turned. Not with a roar, but with a slow, creeping shift.
Sabalenka’s forehand, so often her weapon, started to leak errors. Balls that had been crushing the lines drifted long, then wide. Her feet looked heavier. Her frustration louder.
Noskova saw the opening and went for it. Her serve — clean, repeatable, ice-cold under pressure — became the anchor. Point after point, she nailed her spots and refused to blink.
On her fourth chance to close out the set, she uncorked one of her 18 aces. Sabalenka didn’t even move for it. Just watched it go, as Noskova leveled the match and sent this quarterfinal into a deciding set that felt like it could define both their weeks.
Chaos in the decider
The third set was a test of nerve as much as shotmaking.
At 2-2, Sabalenka faltered again. Broken in the fifth game after another unforced error, she dropped into a crouch and screamed, the sound echoing around Ashe. Noskova, up 4-2, looked in control, her body language calm, her patterns clear.
This was the moment a reigning champion can crack.
Sabalenka refused.
She surged. Three straight games flew onto her side of the scoreboard, her return suddenly biting again, her feet lighter, her targets braver. The rallies grew heavier, the stakes sharper. Noskova didn’t fold — far from it — but the match tightened into a knife-edge.
They went all the way to another tiebreak, both players trading punches, neither willing to give an inch. Every point felt like a mini-battle, every miss a potential turning point.
On match point, with the tension almost unbearable, Sabalenka didn’t roll a safe first serve. She stepped up and ripped a second-serve ace. Noskova never laid a racket on it.
The champion roared. The stadium answered.
“I honestly thought that the match is over”
When it was done, Sabalenka was raw in her assessment of what she’d just been through.
“What a battle, what an incredible player she is. I'm speechless right now because I was pushing myself to the limit in this match, especially in the third set,” she said on court.
“I honestly thought that the match is over. I think that's what helped me to feel loose and go after my shots. I'm super happy to get this win. It was a tough match, a tough battle.”
Noskova leaves with a statement performance in her first US Open quarterfinal, armed with 18 aces and the knowledge she took the world No. 1 to the brink on the biggest court in the sport.
Sabalenka leaves with something different: survival, a place in the semifinals, and a ranking that now hangs by a thread.
No. 1 on the line
She has held the top spot since October 2024. Keeping it now is out of her hands.
Her fate rests with Elena Rybakina.
If Rybakina wins her quarterfinal against Qinwen Zheng — who has staged back‑from‑the‑dead comebacks from 0-5 set deficits in each of her last two matches — the Kazakh will climb to No. 1 regardless of what happens the rest of the tournament.
Sabalenka is two wins from a historic US Open three‑peat.
Whether she chases it as No. 1 or as the hunter again will be decided not by her racket, but by what unfolds in a different corner of Flushing Meadows.
