For Andreeva, the tough thing about playing the No. 1 player in the world is that it’s easy to make excuses for herself.
“Sometimes there are thoughts that are, you know, I feel like, OK, she’s No. 1, maybe it’s OK if this doesn’t work. Or maybe I play not that good here…well, I mean, she’s No. 1, it’s OK.”
It’s hard to say whether Andreeva should feel more encouraged about her chances this time around. While she has won three matches, she had to make a great escape, from 3-5 down in the third, against Moyuka Uchijima, and she dropped another set against Magdalena Frech.
As for Sabalenka, she has yet to lose a set, but her last two opponents, Clara Tauson and Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, each pushed her to a point where she got tight. They showed that if you can take the initiative away from Sabalenka, and stand toe to toe with her, you can make her nervous and disrupt her attack.
Andreeva has the ground-stroke power to do that, but she’ll want to be sharper earlier than she has been so far this week, especially on these fairly fast hard courts. If she can land some punches early, the Sabalenka onslaught could be neutralized. Winner: Sabalenka
