Aryna Sabalenka has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals after defeating 19-year-old Victoria Mboko.
The victory came just days after Ukrainian tennis player Oleksandra Oliynykova demanded the world number one, 27, and fellow competitors from Russia and Belarus be expelled from professional tennis entirely.
Sabalenka looked to be cruising to victory at 6-1, 4-1, only for the Canadian to show just why she is so highly rated.
Mboko saved three match points at 5-4 but Sabalenka regrouped and won a 20th consecutive grand slam tie-break in dominant fashion to claim a 6-1 7-6 (1) win.
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The world number one was hugely impressed by Mboko, who is now on the verge of the top 10.
She said: "She’s an amazing player. It was quite a fight. I’m super happy that I was able to close this match in straight sets. The second set was a bit tricky. But I’m happy with the level I played. Happy to be through.”
Sabalenka successfully fought off one teenage challenger but finds another in her path to the Australian Open semi-finals.
Next up is an even younger opponent, American Iva Jovic, who turned 18 last month.
Aryna Sabalenka has reached the Australian Open quarter-finals after defeating Victoria Mboko
|GETTY
The teenager followed up her maiden top-10 win against Jasmine Paolini by swatting aside Yulia Putintseva 6-0, 6-1 in just 53 minutes.
Jovic already has 11 victories this season, more than any other woman, and is the youngest player to reach the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park without dropping a set since Venus Williams back in 1998.
She has been tipped as a future world number one by her idol Novak Djokovic, with whom she shares Serbian heritage.
Jovic picked Sabalenka at the end of last season as the player she most wanted to face.
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Calls for Sabalenka and fellow competitors from Russia and Belarus be expelled from professional tennis entirely have grown
|GETTY
She said: I think I’m just going to try to keep taking care of my side of the net.
"Obviously she’s number one for a reason and had so much success at this tournament, but that’s what I want.
"I said it last year, I hope to be able to play her this year because you definitely want to play the best and see how it goes. So I’m just really excited.”
Sabalenka is maintaining her formidable record in slams and is bidding for her third title here in four years, having made at least the quarter-finals at every major tournament she has played since the French Open in 2022.
Aryna Sabalenka was hugely impressed by Victoria Mboko
|GETTY
But despite this success, calls Sabalenka should be banned were reiterated when Oliynykova crashed out the competition on Tuesday evening.
The world number 92 donned a T-shirt bearing a pointed message: "I need your help to protect Ukrainian children and women, but I can't talk about it here."
She subsequently told The Age permitting athletes from Belarus and Russia to compete was "very wrong" given the ongoing conflict devastating her homeland.
Oliynykova said: "It's very wrong that they are not disqualified in tennis like in other sports.
"I know that here is the picture that we are all tennis girls playing, but the people don't see the things behind it. The people with money and power, they are using this to support aggression against my country."
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