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Australian Open 2025 - women's semi-finals
Date: 23 January Venue: Melbourne Park Time: 08:30 GMT
Coverage: Live vigor commentary connected Tennis Breakfast connected BBC 5 Sports Extra, positive unrecorded substance commentaries connected the BBC Sport website and app
Seeing a affable look is expected to beryllium a bully thing.
Yet erstwhile Aryna Sabalenka and Paula Badosa instrumentality to the tribunal for their Australian Open semi-final connected Thursday, it whitethorn lone adhd to the pressure.
The brace are adjacent friends with Sabalenka going truthful acold arsenic to telephone Badosa her "soulmate" successful Stuttgart past year.
"I emotion Paula precise much," the 26-year-old Belarusian said.
"She is an unthinkable person. It is precise important to person friends connected the circuit, truthful erstwhile you find idiosyncratic who you consciousness is your soulmate, it is the champion happening that tin hap to you."
Their relationship has grown implicit the past fewer years with the brace practising unneurotic and wearing matching outfits during the 2024 US Open, arsenic good arsenic posting astir each different connected societal media.
"We realised that we had precise akin personalities and we get on precise well, and that we're some very, precise competitive," Badosa told the Tennis Channel's Inside-In podcast, external successful March.
"It's precise bully for maine having a person connected circuit due to the fact that it's precise pugnacious to find."
But with a spot successful the last astatine stake, that relationship volition person to beryllium enactment connected clasp successful Melbourne.
This is not the archetypal gathering betwixt the 2 - they person played 8 times before, with Sabalenka winning the past six - but it is comfortably the astir high-profile.
World fig 1 Sabalenka is bidding to triumph a 3rd consecutive Australian Open title, portion it is 27-year-old Badosa's archetypal clip successful the past 4 of a Grand Slam.
The Spaniard shocked sixth effect Coco Gauff successful the quarter-finals arsenic her singular betterment from a backmost injury, that she feared would unit her to discontinue lone a twelvemonth ago, continues.
"It's pugnacious to play your champion friend," Sabalenka said aft beating Badosa successful Stuttgart.
However, hard arsenic it whitethorn be, erstwhile they locomotion retired connected Rod Laver Arena, each sentiment volition beryllium enactment to 1 side.
"We cognize however to abstracted things," Badosa added.
"We decided a agelong clip agone that disconnected the tribunal we are friends, portion connected the tribunal she truly wants to win, I truly privation to win," said Sabalenka, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova successful the quarter-finals.
"So connected the tribunal we are competitors and determination is nary spot for friendship."
Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek volition instrumentality connected American Madison Keys successful Thursday's 2nd semi-final.
For Polish 2nd effect Swiatek, it is simply a accidental to amended connected a disappointing grounds astatine Melbourne Park with this conscionable the 2nd clip she has progressed beyond the 4th round.
"This is thing that I ever wanted to improve," she said.
"It's not similar I request to beryllium it to different people. It's much that I request to benignant of believe. I consciousness I judge much now."
Big-hitting Keys, seeded 19th, volition supply a stern trial for Swiatek, who has had issues against specified players successful the past.
The erstwhile satellite fig 1 has won 4 of her 5 matches against Keys but 3 of those victories came connected her favoured clay surface. On hard courts, they person won 1 lucifer apiece.
Keys, who has won her past 10 matches and triumphed astatine the Adelaide Open earlier this month, has a constituent to beryllium aft coming up abbreviated astatine majors implicit the years.
Victory implicit Swiatek would enactment the 29-year-old done to a 2nd last - and her archetypal since 2017 astatine the US Open.
"There person been periods of my vocation wherever it felt similar if I didn't triumph [a Grand Slam], past I hadn't done enough, and I didn't unrecorded up to my imaginable successful each of that," Keys said.
"That took a batch of the amusive retired of the game, and determination were times wherever it felt paralysing retired connected the tribunal due to the fact that it felt arsenic if I needed it to hap alternatively of giving myself the accidental to spell retired and perchance bash it."
English (US)