Osaka looked completely in the driver’s seat when she navigated a tense opening serve game put herself up a set and a break, but Sabalenka battled back to level and reversed a 40-0 deficit at 4-3 to break for a second time and find herself serving for the set.
Sabalenka won eight points in a row to engineer triple set point, converting her second with an ace to force a decider.
On the back foot after losing her lead, Osaka saved four break points early in the third with some strong serving but Sabalenka kept pressing and nabbed the first break of the final set. The mistakes began to pile up for Osaka—43 in total to 35 winners—as Sabalenka closed in on a double-break advantage, an ill-timed double fault pulling up a break point.
Osaka saved one but couldn’t save a second, missing wide off the forehand; Sabalenka headed to the chair, preparing to serve for the match.
With all the momentum on her side, Sabalenka surged to three match points, but the top seeded only needed one to edge into the last eight after nearly two and a half hours on court, ending the contest with a practically even 31 winners to 33 unforced errors.
Standing between her and a return to the semifinals is surprise quarterfinalist Hailey Baptiste, the No. 30-seeded American who shocked Belinda Bencic in three sets earlier in the afternoon. Sabalenka won her most recent match with Baptiste in straight sets at the Miami Open.
