Defending champion Sabalenka subdues Townsend to move into US Open last eight

[p]The world number one had endured ‌a frustrating build-up to the year’s ‌final major but has hit her stride at ‌Flushing Meadows and she slammed her foot ‌on the gas in the second set against the home-crowd favourite, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/tennis/sabalenka-a-vyhksgUB/townsend-t-Y9jUuHka/?mid=txzQXa4t"]sealing victory with a backhand ‌winner[/a].[/p][p]She will next play either Ukrainian ⁠11th seed [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/kostyuk-marta/8CZqQdSa/"]‌Marta Kostyuk[/a] or the Czech Republic's Wimbledon champion [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/noskova-linda/zHMiAkw6/"]Linda Noskova[/a].[/p][embed guid="5df25e9a-d4a4-48c3-9304-8042c95d1233" url="https://x.com/usopen/status/2096644905195950536" social-type="twitter" /][p]"[b]What an ​incredible player she is approaching the net, what a great returner[/b]," said [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/sabalenka-aryna/vyhksgUB/"]​Sabalenka[/a]. "[b]Very brave, you can see how focused she was. It was really challenging playing ⁠her, especially here[/b]."[/p][p]Any ​expectation of a one-sided contest between the top-ranked Sabalenka and world number 96 [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/townsend-taylor/Y9jUuHka/"]Townsend[/a] quickly disappeared as they traded two breaks apiece ‌in the opening four games at Arthur Ashe Stadium.[/p][p]Sabalenka broke again in the seventh game, firing a forehand winner to seize the advantage, but Townsend responded immediately by breaking to love.[/p][p]The Belarusian held firm when it mattered, however, saving a break point with an unreturnable serve before closing out the ‌opening set in the 10th game.[/p][image alt="Match stats" id="515c4b5c-8bd4-489b-87a2-04972c9c9f55" credit-line="Flashscore" guid="5c24fd3d-b796-48e4-ba70-d4a4f71eba20" original-width="2160" original-height="2700" /][p]Townsend tamed ​Sabalenka's fearsome serve to move 3-1 ‌up in the second set but a double fault handed the break straight back and shifted the momentum decisively.[/p][p]Sabalenka then sprinted through the final four games to ⁠book her spot ⁠in the last ‌eight.[/p][infobox id="3dc51b3a-107f-482b-9173-a97d347ef1b3" /]