But slowly, if not exactly surely, the 10 years younger and seemingly stronger Sabalenka managed to wrestle back the upper hand, and now plays American 13th seed Amanda Anisimova, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, for a place in Saturday's final.

It took her a while to figure it out. Anisimova would win their first four matches, before Sabalenka finally got on the board in 2022. Since then, the WTA’s No. 1 has fought their rivalry to a draw, and won their most recent match, in two pretty close sets, at Roland Garros in June.