MINSK, 11 January (BelTA) – World number 69 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus has failed to reach the Hobart International semifinal, BelTA has learned.
In the quarterfinal match the Belarusian lost in two straight sets 1-6, 1-6 to Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine, ranked 43rd. The Ukrainian will now face either Romania's world number 57 Mihaela Buzarnescu or U.S. world number 89 Alison Riske.
The Belarusian came through Eugenie Bouchard of Canada (world number 83) 6-4, 6-3 in last 32 and then battled through world number 35 Zhang Shuai of China 7-5 (7-3), 6-4 to reach the quarterfinal.
Today Aryna Sabalenka, together with Russia's Veronika Kudermetova, will face the Romanian-Ukrainian duet of Raluca Olaru and Olga Savchuk in the women's doubles quarterfinal.
Vera Lapko (135) took a confident win, 6-3, 6-1 over Romania's Alexandra Cadantu (171) in the first Australian Open qualifying round. The Belarusian will next play Stefanie Vogele of Switzerland (144).
A player needs to go through three qualifying games in order to join 128 participants playing in the main draw.
In the Australian Open men's singles event both Belarusian players lost their openers. Vladimir Ignatik (world No.145) was beaten by U.S. world number 202 Kevin King 6-7 (2-7), 2-6. Ilya Ivashko (210) lost in a close battle to Dennis Novak of Austria (223) 4-6, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7).
