{"id":35292,"date":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=35292"},"modified":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-09T15:04:13","slug":"sabalenka-impresses-australian-open-warm-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=35292","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka impresses Australian Open warm-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>World number one Aryna Sabalenka said she still had room for improvement after a second dominant win in the Brisbane International on Thursday.<br \/>\nSabalenka was pushed at times by 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea, but was never really troubled by the Romanian as she notched a 6-3, 6-3 win in 70 minutes.<br \/>\nThe Belarusian will next play either 21-year-old Russian Diana Shnaider or Madison Keys, the American who beat Sabalenka in last year&#8217;s Australian Open final.<br \/>\nSabalenka said she aimed to get better as she targets a third Australian Open title in four years when the first Grand Slam of the year begins in Melbourne on January 18.<br \/>\n&#8220;I think there is always room to improve, and I&#8217;m definitely not at my peak,&#8221; Sabalenka said.<br \/>\n&#8220;Of course I prefer to win every match 6-0, 6-0, like everyone probably prefers, but at the end of the day you only get better when someone pushes you and you have to deal with moments under pressure.&#8221;<br \/>\nSabalenka said tournaments such as Brisbane, which features seven of the top 10 women, were perfect preparation for a Grand Slam.<br \/>\n&#8220;I think by bringing and having seven top players in the draw, it definitely helps to prepare better for the Australian Open,&#8221; she said.<br \/>\n&#8220;I think it&#8217;s important to have quality matches before heading to the big event, just so you&#8217;re preparing yourself mentally for fights, for battles.<br \/>\n&#8220;And playing against top players is definitely a huge help heading into the Grand Slam tournament.&#8221;<br \/>\nAnother of the top names is former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, who also reached the quarter-finals with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Spain&#8217;s Paula Badosa.<br \/>\nWorld number five Rybakina took control at 3-3 in the first set, winning nine of the next 11 games to seal victory.<br \/>\n&#8220;It&#8217;s always a tough battle against Paula, she has great shots, plays really fast and has a great serve,&#8221; Kazakhstan&#8217;s Rybakina said.<br \/>\n&#8220;I have a lot of things to work on for my next match but hopefully it&#8217;s going to be better.&#8221;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>World number one Aryna Sabalenka said she still had room for improvement after a second dominant win in the Brisbane International on Thursday. Sabalenka was pushed at times by 36-year-old Sorana Cirstea, but was never really troubled by the Romanian as she notched a 6-3, 6-3 win in 70 minutes. The Belarusian will next play [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}