Sabalenka drops just 3 games en route to semis

No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, last year's US Open runner-up, surrendered just three games to Qinwen Zheng on Tuesday night in reaching the semifinals at Flushing Meadows for the fourth year in a row.

The quarterfinal featuring Sabalenka and No. 7 Zheng -- a rematch of the Australian Open final in January won by Sabalenka -- was the first matchup between players ranked in the top 10 on the women's side at this year's US Open.

With Roger Federer in the stands, attending the US Open for the first time since his retirement, Sabalenka displayed a typically powerful performance in a 6-1, 6-2 victory to set up a meeting with Emma Navarro on Thursday.

Asked how she's going to get some of the thousands of fans to support her against the American Navarro, Sabalenka, a 26-year-old from Belarus, joked: "Drinks on me!"

She is trying to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to win the hard-court major titles at the Australian Open and US Open.

The opponents in the other women's semifinal will be decided on Wednesday, when No. 1 Iga Swiatek plays No. 6 Jessica Pegula, and No. 22 Beatriz Haddad Maia takes on unseeded Karolina Muchova.

Sabalenka improved to 9-1 in major quarterfinals, the second-best win percentage among women since the Open era began in 1968 (min. 10 matches). Her nine major semifinal appearances since the start of 2021 lead all women's players over that span.

The three games won by Zheng, the gold medalist at the Paris Olympics last month, were her fewest in a Grand Slam match. She made only 44% of her first serves.

ESPN Stats & Information and The Associated Press contributed to this report.