World number one Aryna Sabalenka will take on the 12th-ranked Paula Badosa in the semifinal of the 2025 Australian Open which will be played on Thursday, January 23. Get all the Aryna Sabalenka v Paula Badosa predictions, betting tips and odds for this encounter in the section below.
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Aryna Sabalenka v Paula Badosa Head to Head
There have been seven previous meetings between these two players and Sabalenka leads Badosa 5-2.
Only three of these matches have come in hardcourt competitions – at Cincinnati and WTA Finals in 2021 and Miami last year – and Badosa leads 2-1.
They played three times last year and Sabalenka won all those matches.
Sabalenka Taken to Three by Pavlyuchenkova
For the first time in the competition, Aryna Sabalenka looked a little jittery and in her own words, was “all over the place” before she managed to come through in the quarterfinal.
Taking on Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, a former French Open finalist, Sabalenka clinched a 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 win over her Russian opponent to scrape through to the semifinal as she looks to make it three Australian Open titles in a row.
It took her an hour and 55 minutes and six breaks of serves to get to the win, the last of which came in the eighth game of the final set. This was after Pavlyuchenkova had gone up a break twice in the decider before getting broken right back.
Sabalenka had earlier defeated Sloane Stephens, Jessica Maneiro Bouzas and Clara Tauson in straight sets before routing Mirra Andreeva 6-1, 6-2 in the quarterfinals.
She now takes on one of her best friends on the tour, Paula Badosa.
Badosa Shocks Gauff
Cori Gauff was one of the favourites coming into the tournament, having won all her five matches in USA’s run to the United Cup title earlier this month.
Paula Badosa had found some of her mojo in the tournament following losses to Elina Avanesyan and Ashlyn Krueger at Brisbane and Adelaide respectively but it wasn’t surprising she had gone into this match at 14/5 against a far superior Gauff.
But the former world number two, who had suffered back problems bad enough to think of retirement and plummetted to 140th in the world, stunned Gauff – and tennis fans around the world – with her 7-5, 6-4 win over the American.
The Spaniard did not give Gauff a single break-point in the first set before getting the better of the American’s serve in the 11th game. She served out the set in the very next game.
Badosa then went 2-0 up in the second set and while Gauff broke back in the fourth game, the world number 12 clinched the encounter with two more breaks of serves.
While Badosa failed to serve it out at 5-2, she did just that in the 10th game of the set.
Sabalenka v Badosa Prediction
Sabalenka’s overall record and her more recent record against Badosa points to a straightforward win for her. Badosa, however, has shown in this competition that she isn’t the easiest to play again and Sabalenka could get tested as a result – in one of the sets.
We still think that the world number one could get herself to the final with a straight-set win.
Sabalenka v Badosa Tips
- Sabalenka to win: 1/4
- Sabalenka to win in straight sets: 4/5
