BRISBANE, Australia (AP)—Aryna Sabalenka describes the tennis schedule as “insane” and said she’ll risk fines in order to skip tournaments to avoid injuries or burnout.
For all those concerns, though, the world’s top-ranked woman is happy to have as much competition as possible before the season-opening Grand Slam in Australia.
Sabalenka beat Sorana Cirstea 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday to move into the Brisbane International quarterfinals, where she’ll take on fifth-seeded Madison Keys almost a year after losing to her in the Australian Open final.
Keys, her left leg heavily taped, came back from a set and a break down to beat 12th-seeded Diana Shnaider 6-7 (5), 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) on Thursday.
“Always good to start the year with a little bit of drama,” Keys said in a post-match interview after three hours on court. “Glad we got that out of the way.”
Keys had only two matches after her first-round exit at the US Open, so she’s looking for plenty of time on court before her title defense at the Australian Open, which starts on Jan. 18. Her career breakthrough at a major came at the expense of Sabalenka’s bid for an Australian Open three-peat.
