{"id":107016,"date":"2025-09-01T14:06:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/107016\/"},"modified":"2025-09-01T14:06:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-01T14:06:10","slug":"aryna-sabalenka-refutes-playing-not-to-lose-claim-after-reaching-us-open-quarter-finals-with-victory-over-cristina-bucsa-i-play-to-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/107016\/","title":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka refutes ‘playing not to lose’ claim after reaching US Open quarter-finals with victory over Cristina Bucsa – ‘I play to win’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Aryna Sabalenka<\/a> booked her place in the US Open<\/a> quarter-finals with a victory in straight sets over Cristina Bucsa<\/a> on Sunday, and subsequently denied any suggestions she is “playing not to lose” in her title defence.Sabalenka dispatched the Spaniard 6-1 6-4<\/a> in one hour and 14 minutes with a dominant display in front of the Louis Armstrong crowd to set up a clash with 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova<\/a>. <\/p>\n

And the defending US Open champion issued a staunch response when it was suggested in her on-court interview that she could be prioritising avoiding defeat, rather than attacking matches and going for victory.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not playing not to lose, I play to win,” Sabalenka said. “I don\u2019t care about what happened last year. <\/p>\n

“I mean, of course it\u2019s a big achievement, and I\u2019m super happy I was able to achieve it once, but the goal is to do it many more times.”<\/p>\n

“My mentality is to go out there every time, bring the best fighting spirit, and just fight for my dream.”<\/p>\n

\"picture\"<\/p>\n

‘Incredible achievement’ Sabalenka says about being in 11th straight Grand Slam quarter-final<\/p>\n

Video credit: SNTV<\/p>\n

The US Open represents Sabalenka’s final chance of securing a Grand Slam title this year, after she fell just short in the Australian Open and French Open finals, before crashing out of Wimbledon with a semi-final defeat.<\/p>\n

The top seed was in total control throughout against Bucsa, not facing a single break point. <\/p>\n

After trading holds for 2-1, Sabalenka soon exerted real pressure on the world No. 35 with a quick-fire double break, allowing her to take the opening set without much in the way of a reply. <\/p>\n

While the second was altogether more competitive, Sabalenka’s world-leading credentials were still firmly on display.<\/p>\n

She took what turned out to be a decisive break and a 4-2 lead. Her hopes of concluding the night in rapid fashion were stunted somewhat by a 19-point game in which she looked to clinch a double-break, but it did not quite come off as Bucsa eventually held for 4-3. <\/p>\n

But the Spaniard could not make any inroads on Sabalenka’s serve, with the Belarusian seeing through the victory to reach a 12th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final – a fifth in succession at Flushing Meadows. <\/p>\n

On the feat, Sabalenka commented: “I’m super proud. I think that’s an incredible achievement. I think for me, the key was balancing on and off-the-court life. <\/p>\n

“I think I’ve done a great job on balancing really hard work and also great recovery and some fun time outside of the tennis court. I think that’s been the key.”<\/p>\n

She will face Voundrousova – the Czech former Wimbledon champion who has upset No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini and No. 9 seed Elena Rybakina in New York so far – on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

Watch and stream top tennis action live and on demand on TNT Sports and discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka booked her place in the US Open quarter-finals with a victory in straight sets over Cristina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107017,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[7307,52076,101,118,56,54,55,6545],"class_list":{"0":"post-107016","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-aryna-sabalenka","9":"tag-cristina-bucsa","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom","15":"tag-us-open"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107016"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107016\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}