Belarus’ world number 5 Aryna Sabalenka defeated world number 10 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, 7-5, 6-2, in an hour and 27 minutes to reach her first Australian Open quarterfinal, BelTA has learned

Earlier, Aryna Sabalenka dispatched world number 74 Tereza Martincova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-4, beat world number 51 Shelby Rogers of the United States, 6-3, 6-1 and saw off world number 32 Elise Mertens of Belgium, 6-2, 6-3. Aryna Sabalenka’s next opponent will be world number 64 Donna Vekic of Croatia.

Belarus’ world number 24 Victoria Azarenka reached the quarterfinal solving China’s world number 87 Zhu Lin, 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.

Before that, Victoria Azarenka beat world number 203 Sofia Kenin of the United States, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), saw off world number 191 Nadia Podoroska of Argentine, 6-1, 6-0, and defeated world number 13 Madison Keys of the United States, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1.

In the quarterfinal the Belarusian will face world number 3 Jessica Pegula of the United States, who beat Belarus’ world number 32 Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the second round.

The Australian Open prize money for 2023 is $51.5 million. Winners in the men’s and women’s singles events will get $2 million each. The tournament at the Melbourne Park hard courts will be over on 29 January.