Gauff vs. Sabalenka, Yastremska vs. Zheng: Previewing the Australian Open women's semifinals

The top seed remaining faces a round, and an opponent, that have haunted her

Aryna Sabalenka vs. Coco Gauff

Is Sabalenka feeling any trepidation about playing the woman who beat her in the US Open final last summer? It doesn’t sound like it.

“I love it, I love it,” the second seed says. “After the US Open, I really wanted that revenge. It’s always great battles with Coco, with really great fights.”

That enthusiasm is kind of surprising, considering the way she explains what it’s like to go up against the speedy teen.

“She’s moving really well,” Sabalenka says of Gauff. “Everything you do on court, it’s coming back. So you need to build the point probably a couple times in point to have that easy shot to finish the point.”

“Easy” is one way to describe Sabalenka’s Australian Open so far. She’s dropped 16 games in five matches, and had no trouble at all with her one Top 10 opponent, Barbora Krejcikova. Sabalenka has been getting off to fast starts, serving well, hitting with power and margin from the baseline, and generally looking like she’s in another league from her opponents. She’s also looking like the favorite to win the title.

But Sabalenka stormed into the semis at each of the last three majors and didn’t end up walking away with any trophies. Twice, at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, she gave back seemingly insurmountable semifinal leads and went down to painful defeats. At the US Open, she made it safely through the semis, won the first set of the final over Gauff 6-2—and then imploded once again.

Sabalenka says she likes the “great battles” she’s had with Gauff, but she usually comes out on the losing end. The American leads their head-to-head 4-2, which isn’t all that surprising when you look at their game styles. As Sabalenka says, Gauff gets to more balls than just about anyone else on tour, and forces her opponent to hit one or two of three more shots than she would like to finish off a point. That’s how she beat her at the Open.

Can Gauff do it again? She’s going to have to play better than she did in her last match, a three-set win over Marta Kostyuk. The No. 4 seed's forehand in particular was way off; she wasn’t swinging through it with any freedom or confidence. To have a chance against Sabalenka, she’ll have to keep the donations to a minimum.

But Gauff also showed that she can win without playing close to her best. She stayed calm, and never let her erratic play bring her down mentally. That alone should make Sabalenka think twice about how much she’s looking forward to facing her. Winner: Sabalenka

Two surprises who don’t seem quite as surprising by now

Qinwen Zheng vs. Dayana Yastremska

The thing about shock semifinalists at Slams is that, by the time they get to the semis, they don’t seem like quite so shocking anymore. At this point, we’ve been watching the 93rd-ranked Yastremska play well and win matches for nearly two weeks, so we should be used to it. And while Zheng wasn’t technically supposed to be here—she’s the 12th seed—we knew the 21-year-old was going to make it this far at a major at some point.

Zheng and Yastremska have never played. Their matchup, like a lot of matchups in today’s tennis, will be a hard-hitting one. Yastremska strikes with flat power, hyper-penetrating pace, and keeps the stroke-making engine in top gear. Zheng uses more margin and spin, but she likes to dictate, too. Zheng is the better athlete, Yastremska the purer ball-striker. Each of them has also seemed to be on a mission at this tournament. Yastremska has grabbed the Ukrainian flag from countrywoman Elina Svitolina and run with it, while Zheng is happy to show her ex-coach, Wim Fissette, what could have been for him.

In the long run, Zheng will likely have the better career, but at this tournament, Yastremska has seemed more dialed in with each match. Winner: Yastremska