Aryna Sabalenka vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: Australian Open Match Preview, Odds & Prediction

In Tuesday's quarterfinal match, Aryna Sabalenka will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the oldest woman remaining in the draw. She will be looking to extend her winning streak to 18 matches at the Australian Open.

Even though she has a losing record against this opponent on the women's tour, the world number one is understandably scared of beating her in the hopes of advancing to the semifinals against Coco Gauff or Paula Badosa.

Previous Matches and Head-to-head

Sabalenka defeated teenage phenom Mirra Andreeva in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, in sixty-two minutes, despite expectations that the match would be competitive going into the fourth round.

The top seed, seeking revenge for her quarterfinal loss at Roland Garros last season and setting up a fourth encounter with Pavlyuchenkova, shockingly spent the least amount of time on court against her highest-ranked opponent.

The two-time reigning champion's winning streak in Australia now stands at 18 matches, and she has already won as many matches on hard courts as she did at the US Open and Australian Open last year combined.

A three-peat in Australia was the goal going into the first Major of the year, and the 26-year-old is now three victories shy of matching the record set by Martina Hingis (1997–1999), the last woman to do so and the first since the turn of the millennium.

The top seed is eager to improve upon her 84% victory percentage and comes into the quarterfinals as the younger player with momentum. She has won her past nine matches since losing to Gauff in last year's WTA Finals.

It would be interesting to see if Pavlyuchenkova, who is 33 years old, becomes more resilient as a result of her time on the court or whether the long hours wear her down.

Donna Vekic's right knee caused a one-sided second set in Sunday's 7-6(0), 6-0 victory at John Cain Arena, ending what appeared like it might be another possible three-setter.

The 27th seed's goal of making her first semifinal appearance Down Under after making three quarterfinal appearances between 2017 and 2020 may be jeopardized, despite the fact that her last two matches were admittedly under two hours. Her three-set matches against Yuan Yue and Anastasia Potapova, which lasted nearly two hours and three hours 30 minutes, respectively, could affect this.

The 33-year-old never quite lived up to her earlier success in Australia, falling in the first and third rounds before finally being eliminated in the second round last year. This was despite making it to the French Open final at Roland Garros the year after when Barbora Krejcikova defeated her.

With her finest Grand Slam run since the 2020 Melbourne event and the 2023 French Open under her belt, the oldest woman still in the draw hopes to pull off an upset against the much favoured Sabalenka, who many are predicting would win her third consecutive championship in Australia.

In their head-to-head matchup, Pavlyuchenkova is up 2-1. Their most recent encounter was in 2021, during the Russian's march to the Roland Garros title match.

Recently, the 33-year-old has gone 3-7 versus top-10 players; however, her two victories came in 2017 on hard courts against Marketa Vondrousova in Doha and Qinwen Zheng in Cincinnati.

Out of her seven Grand Slam victories against great players, the 12-time titlist only has one other, the aforementioned 2021 success over Sabalenka.

Tournament so far

Aryna Sabalenka:

First round: vs. Sloane Stephens 6-3 6-2

Second round: vs. Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-3 7-5

Third round: vs. Clara Tauson 7-6[5] 6-4

Round of 16: vs. Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-2

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova:

First round: vs. Yuan Yue 6-4 4-6 6-3

Second round: vs. Anastasia Potapova 7-6[2] 2-6 6-2

Third round: vs. Laura Siegemund 6-1 6-2

Round of 16: vs. Donna Vekic 7-6[0] 6-0

Our Predictions

Correct score 2-0 @ 1.33 on Sky247.ng

Even though Pavlyuchenkova's powerful game and aggressive approach might give Sabalenka a run for her money, the top seed is a heavy favourite to win the Australian Open and extend her winning streak to 10 matches.

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