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AMMAN — Jordan finished fourth at theFIBA U18 Asia Cup which ended in Amman on Monday after losing the 3rd place match 84-63 to China as Australia beat New Zealand 96-33 in the title match.

The top four teams advanced to the 2025 U19 World Cup slated for Switzerland with Spain the defending champs among the elite basketball teams of the world. It will be Jordan’s second time at the U-19 World Cup after first qualifying in 1995 finishing 16th. 

The FIBA U-18 Asia Cup was Jordan’s fifth time at the event after previously finishing 3rd in 1995, 9th in 1996, 10th in 2008 and 2014.

The young Jordanian squad had an impressive championship which saw them lose 71-62 to New Zealand before they beat the Philippines 62-56, Indonesia  82-59 and Qatar 91-85. In the quarterfinals, they upstaged title holders South Korea 73-69 to move to the semis where they lost to Australia 94-42.

So far, basketball has been the only Jordanian team to reach a World Cup in a team sport. The senior team so far played at the FIBA World Cup three times– 2010, 2019 and 2023. In 2010, Jordan finished 23rd among 24 countries after losing all 5 matches; In 2019, Jordan managed a win over Senegal  to finish 28th among 32 nations, and in 2023 finished last at 32nd.

AMMAN — The 2024 Olympic edition wrapped up in Paris with the Paralympic Games as Jordan’s team returned home with three medals afterjoiningover 4000 athletesfrom around the world,competing in 22 sports.

In its 10th time at the Games, Jordan’s powerlifter Abdul Karim Khattab repeated his Tokyo Games gold and seta new world and paralympic record; teammate Omar Qaradhi won the second gold medal- his fourth overall paralympic medal over the years, and Ahmad Hindi added  a bronze in athletics (shot put) after he won gold in Tokyo.

The delegation also included powerlifters, record four-time medalist Jamil Shibli, who had won medals at every Games since 2004; Rio silver medalist Tharwat Hajjaj, Beijing bronze medalist Mu'taz Juneidi, Asma Issa and Mohammad Shneiti.

Table tennis, which secured Jordan’s first ever gold in 2000 and has always been a leading sport for the disabled was missing from competition.

Since participating as of 1984, Jordan has now won a total of 22 medals at the Paralympics (7 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze).  The total count includes a  silver and two bronze won at the Stoke Mandeville Games, which preceded the Paralympic Games.

The Tokyo edition was the most successful for Jordan with a historic four gold medals in powerlifting and athletics and a bronze in table tennis. The four gold medals were the first after 20 years since the lateMaha Barghouti's first gold (wheelchair table tennis) at the 2000 Sydney Games. 

A look back at past Paralympic participations demonstrates how sports for the disabled has gained recognition for Jordan through impressive performances on the international scene. Jordan's medals tally started in 1984, when the late Aida Shishani won bronze in athletics, 100 and 200m and the Barghouti silver in shot put at the Stoke Mandeville Games. 

At the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics,  Imad Gharbawi won a silver medal in the discus followed by Barghouti’s gold in Sydney 2000. Two medals were added in Athens 2004 when Jamil Shibli won silver in the shot put while the women’s table tennis team (Khitam Abu Awad and Fatima Azzam) won bronze. 

In 2008, Jordan won two silvers and two bronze. Omar Qaradhi took silver in power lifting; Shibli added a second silver with a new Paralympic world record in the shot put, Mu’taz Juneidi won a bronze in power-lifting and the women's wheelchair table tennis team won bronze when  Fatima Azzam and Khitam Abu Awad repeated their bronze medal win in Athens 2004.

The 2012 Paralympics was the most disappointing participation after the impressive women in table tennis failed to advance past the round of 16 while power lifters, some of whom continued to be on the team to date, were embroiled in controversy amid sexual assault complaints and were returned home before later facing legal proceedings in the UK.

In Rio 2016, Jordan won three medals in power lifting - two silvers by Tharwat Hajjaj (86 kg) and Omar Qaradhi (49 kg), while 2004 and 2008 silver medalist Jamil Shibli won bronze (+107 kg). 

In Tokyo 2020, Ahmad Hindi set a new world record and won a gold in athletics (shot put); three golds were secured in  power lifting by Omar Qaradhi(49 kg),  Abdul Karim Khattab (88 kg),  and Jamil Shibli (+107 kg) and a bronze was secured by veteran table tennis star Khitam Abu Awad in wheelchair table tennis.

Paralympic athletes are grouped in classes defined by the degree of function presented by the disability. Traditionally there are athletes who belong to six different disability groups in the Paralympics Movement: Amputee, cerebral palsy, visual impairment, spinal cord injuries, intellectual disability and a group which includes all those who are not within the afore mentioned groups.

Athletes with disabilities have usually made up for the failure to achieve better results on the Olympic scene, where even qualifying to the world’s premier sports gathering has been a daunting task, and since first participating in 1980, the Kingdom earned its first Olympic medal in 2016 and so farhas four in total (1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)

Since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, Jordan first won gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics by Ahmad Abu Ghaush (taekwondo -68 kg). At the Tokyo Games, Saleh Sharabati grabbed  a silver (taekwondo - 80kg),  and Abdul Rahman Masatfeh (Karate -67 kg) won a bronze. At the 2024 Paris Games a silver medal was added by Zaid Mustafa(taekwondo - 68kg).

NEW YORK — Aryna Sabalenka won the US Open and her third Grand Slam crown with a thrilling victory over a gallant Jessica Pegula in a rollercoaster final on Saturday.

World No.2 Sabalenka triumphed 7-5, 7-5 to add the New York title to her back-to-back Australian Open victories.

Pegula went down fighting, however, recovering from 0-3 and break point down to lead 5-3 in the second set before Sabalenka came through.

The 26-year-old from Belarus clubbed 40 winners to become the first woman since Angelique Kerber in 2016 to capture both hardcourt majors in the same season.

“I’m speechless. So many times I was close to the US Open title and finally I got it,” said Sabalenka, the runner-up last year and semifinalist in 2022 and 2023.

“Never give up on your dream. Work hard. I’m super proud of myself.”

Pegula had arrived in New York with a title in Toronto and runner-up spot to Sabalenka in Cincinnati.

She had won 15 out of 16 matches on the North American summer hard court swing.

“I wish she would have at least let me get one set. We had a tough match in Cincinnati a few weeks ago and she’s one of the best in the world,” said the American.

“She’s super powerful and isn’t going to give you anything. She can take the racquet out of your hand.

“I’m just glad I was able to stay in there and keep taking opportunities.”

Sabalenka lost the 2023 US Open final to Pegula’s compatriot Coco Gauff and she struggled to settle in during the early stages on Saturday as a flurry of errors handed the home favourite a break for 2-1.

But the powerful Sabalenka levelled immediately and broke again for 4-2.

A capacity crowd of 23,000 included sporting royalty such as Olympic 100m gold medallist Noah Lyles, NBA star Steph Curry and former Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton watched on.

Most were behind Pegula but the 30-year-old was defenceless against the remorseless hitting of the world number two, whose screams echoed beneath the closed roof of the cavernous Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Pegula, who had knocked out world number one Iga Swiatek and then battled from a set and break down to see off Karolina Muchova in the semifinal, clung on.

From 2-5 down, she hit back for 5-5, breaking Sabalenka as the Australian Open champion served for the set.

In a marathon 12th game, however, Pegula saved four set points but not the fifth.

Sabalenka had unleashed 25 winners and committed 23 unforced errors to Pegula’s nine and 11, illustrating a dramatic contrast of styles in the 60-minute opener.

For the second match in succession, Pegula was soon a set and break down again, a double fault allowing Sabalenka to move ahead 3-0.

Incredibly, the 30-year-old stormed back to lead 5-3 before Sabalenka broke in the 10th game as her opponent attempted to level the final.

Sabalenka held her nerve to claim victory when Pegula went long with a weary drive.

AMMAN - In a dramatic finish, Kuwait managed to equalise from the spot kick in the injury time and snatch 1-1 draw at Amman International Stadium. Yussef |Nasser kept his cool and scored from the spot in dying minutes of the game. 

Jordan started well the first game in AFC qualification Round 3, when Musa Al Taamari scored in 14th minute of the first half for Nashama.

Jordan faces Palestine on Tuesday in Malaysia in the second round of the Group B alongside South Korea, Iraq, Oman, Kuwait and Palestine. The top team from the group will qualify directly to the 2026 World Cup while the third- and forth-placed teams from three qualifying groups will form the 4th Round of qualifiers. 

Jordan began the match offensively, trying to score quickly as Abdella Nasib's header almost finished behind the Kuwaiti goalie Sulaiman Abdulghafoor.

The host did not wait long to open the scoring sheet as in 14th minute Noor Al Din Rawabdeh passed the ball to Montpelier striker Taamari, who made no mistake from the edge of the box, sending a precise shot in the bottom corner.

After the initial goal, Jordan continued to press Kuwaiti defence and Mahmoud Marty had the chance to double the lead in 21st minute, but his overhead kick went directly into Abdulghafoor.

Jordan missed a golden opportunity in the second half when Marty blasted the ball over the crossbar from 9 metres.

Meanwhile, Kuwaiti team had sporadic moments of threat when Faisal Harbi's freekick from 22 metressailed the ball over the bar.

In a dramatic twist, Jordan was given a penalty in the finish of the match but after the VAR review the decision was overturned.  Moments later, the penalty was awarded to Kuwait when Yazan Al Arab brought down Moath Al Enazi.

Nasser confidently converted the penalty, denying Jordan the first victory in the Round 3.

NEW YORK — Jannik Sinner closed in on his second Grand Slam title of 2024 on Wednesday when he reached his maiden US Open semifinal as Jessica Pegula stunned Iga Swiatek to complete a rollercoaster Grand Slam year for the World No.1.

Top seed Sinner defeated 2021 US Open champion and two-time runner-up Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 6-4.

He will take on 25th-ranked Jack Draper for a place in the final after the British player made his first semifinal at the Slams with a 6-3, 7-5, 6-2 win over Australia’s Alex de Minaur

Sinner, 23, is the only top-10 man to make the semifinals with number 12 Taylor Fritz due to face US compatriot Frances Tiafoe, ranked 20, in Friday’s other last-four duel.

Sixth-ranked Pegula booked a place in the last-four of a Grand Slam for the first time by sweeping past Swiatek 6-2, 6-4.

On Thursday, she will tackle Karolina Muchova who saw off Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil 6-1, 6-4.

Emma Navarro of the US tackles world number two and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka in the other women’s semifinal.

“It was very tough, I knew it would be very physical,” said Sinner, who had also beaten Medvedev to capture the Australian Open.

“It was strange in the first two sets, whoever got the break started to roll.”

Medvedev had to save 10 of 15 break points while his dream of making a 10th Slam semifinal was undermined by 57 unforced errors.

Draper pulled off the victory over 10th-ranked De Minaur despite taking a medical timeout early in the second set to have his right thigh bandaged.

“It’s amazing. My first time on Arthur Ashe Stadium, it means the world to me,” said Draper, who had lost three times in three meetings with De Minaur before Wednesday.

“I played a solid match and I feel the best, fitness-wise, that I have felt in a long time.”

Draper is the first British man to make the last four since Andy Murray won the title 12 years ago.

He has made the semifinals without dropping a set as he continued an impressive summer run which saw him capture his first ATP title in Stuttgart and then defeat Carlos Alcaraz at Queen’s Club.

Draper sent down 11 aces among his 40 winners while forcing De Minaur to fend off 14 of 20 break points.

The British player enjoys a 1-0 lead over Sinner in the pair’s head-to-head record although that win at Queen’s came three years ago.

Pegula has now won 14 times in 15 matches on US hard courts this summer.

“Finally I can say I’m a semi-finalist. I lost so many of these damn things,” said the American after her fourth career win against Swiatek.

Before Wednesday, she had lost six times at the quarter-final stage at the majors.

“Thanks to the crowd. I sent over a 65mph second serve [on a third match point] because I was so tight.”

Swiatek was undone by 41 unforced errors and was left to ponder an uneven season at the Grand Slams.

There was the high of a fourth French Open triumph but that was sandwiched by third-round exits at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

At the Paris Olympics, played on her favourite Roland Garros courts, she had to settle for the bronze medal.

“It’s hard to have low expectations when everybody is expecting something from you,” said Swiatek.

Muchova’s win over Haddad Maia came despite having to sprint to the bathroom early in the second set, a dash which caught everyone on the hop.

“I had a problem that I wouldn’t like to comment on,” said the 28-year-old. “I really didn’t have any other choice.”

After losing to eventual champion Coco Gauff in the 2023 semifinals, Muchova suffered a serious wrist injury which sidelined her until June this year.

A former world number eight, now ranked at 52, Muchova has yet to drop a set, knocking out two-time champion Naomi Osaka and this year’s French Open and Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini.

AMMAN - Jordan plays Kuwait on Thursday evening in the first Group B/Round 3 match of 2026 World Cup qualifiers kicking off at Amman International Stadium.

It will be the first official match under incoming Moroccan coach Jamal Sellamy who replaced compatriot Hussein Ammouta earlier this summer.

Sellamy underlined that the squad was ready and had its eyes set on the goal of qualifying to the World Cup. “All the positive indications are there. Players are ready, confident, and we have a sold out match. Fan support is a major motivator on home ground,” Sellamy added.

“We are on the right track but not in an ideal situation,” the coach said  at Wednesday's press conference. “Taking all our challenges into account we didn’t have an ideal time to prepare as we would have liked,” Sellamy said, underlining that the training camp in Turkey had helped decide player readiness. “There are slight changes in tactics and  things are moving in the right direction.”

Team star striker Mousa Ta’mari who plays for France’s Montpellier together with Yazan Al Arab, who just joined the Korean league were the last to join the squad. Team captain Ehsan Haddad, was on the injured list has returned. Striker Yazan Nue’imat who just joined Qatar’s Arabi, as well as Nour Rawabdeh and Ali Alwan, playing in the Malaysian league joined the team earlier this week.

The team regrouped last weekend as coach Sellamy named the lineup that was finalised after playing North Korea in two friendlies  drawing 0-0 before winning 2-1 in the second encounter.

Currently 68th in FIFA rankings, Jordan has played 110 ranked Korea  in 6 previous official and friendly matches winning two, losing 3 and drawing once.

Round 3 includes 18 teams playing in three groups in home and away format from September 5, 2024 to June 10, 2025 with the top two from each group advancing directly to the World Cup while the rest will play Round 4 in two groups with group leaders advancing and a possible ninth team advancing through intercontinental play-offs.

Jordan will head to Malaysia on Friday to play Palestine on September 10. Their group also includes Oman, Iraq and South Korea. Group A includes Iran, Qatar, Uzbekistan, UAE, Kyrgyzstan and North Korea, while Group C includes Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, China and Indonesia.

Sellamy told the media monitoring the league matches over the past three weeks has helped to zoom in on the players most ready to represent the national team. “This is the start of the critical stage of qualifying and the players chosen are the best at this stage. Any player who proves they are better for the squad will be recalled at any stage.” Sellamy added.

ZURICH — Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen resumes his rivalry with Briton Josh Kerr at Thursday's Diamond League meeting in Zurich, and the race promises to be a humdinger.

Rarely has an event been as keenly contested in recent seasons as the men's 1500m, Ingebrigtsen and Kerr accompanied in Switzerland by the American pair of Cole Hocker and Yared Nuguse.

Going into the Paris Olympics, the narrative had all been about Ingebrigtsen avenging his world championships loss to Kerr.

Even World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, himself a two-time Olympic 1500m champion and whose career involved an intense rivalry with Steve Ovett, dubbed the tug-of-war between the two tremendous for the sport.

"It has an added piquancy because this is probably not a friendship made in heaven," Coe said.

Kerr and Ingebrigtsen have traded barbs since the Scot swept past the Norwegian to snatch world gold in Budapest last year.

Ingebrigtsen has said that Kerr "is known as the Brit who never competes". Kerr for his part has said he thinks that Ingebrigtsen has some "major weakness" and flaws in the "manners realm".

Either way, both were upstaged at the Paris Games as the unheralded Hocker surged home for gold ahead of Kerr, Nuguse taking bronze ahead of Ingebrigtsen.

'Anything can happen' 

All four are present in Zurich in what will be one of the most hotly-anticipated post-Olympics showdowns.

"What makes it exciting is that we come out of our lanes and anything can happen," said Kerr.

"For the crowd, there's a lot of variables that can come into play with our distance. It's slightly longer than the 800m, a little more tactical, but also kind of pretty fast and pretty hard.

"It's the perfect distance to watch!"

Despite being twice pushed into world silver, Ingebrigtsen has long been the marked man when it comes to the 1500m.

"That's the position that everybody wants to be in," he argued.

"At the same time it's a unique position to be in where we can be quite a lot of runners all fighting for the same thing... have some good fights. That's what everybody wants to see."

Hocker added that it was "fascinating to see in the 1500m, no matter what race it is but even at the global stage, that everyone has a different strength and a different way that they want to set themselves up best".

"It's interesting to see everyone come together and collide, and everyone just tries to win."

Ingebrigtsen, who beat Hocker in the Lausanne Diamond League, then went on to smash the 3,000m world record in Silesia.

But he picked up a virus after that, something he admitted did not make for great preparation for an all-out battle with three of his closest rivals.

"Everyone told me I shouldn't be here," the Norwegian said. "I'll do as good as I can and do a good race.

"I'm here and I'm going to spend the next hours wisely and hopefully I'll be as good as I can tomorrow."

With Kerr and Ingebrigtsen barely able to look at each other during the pre-meet press conference, the Briton risked the wrath of the Norwegian when asked what the latter's strengths were.

"His dress sense," the Scot glibly deadpanned to a silent room.

Ingebrigtsen at least responded with a more humble answer, saying that Kerr gave "100 per cent when it matters".

"Josh has been doing that since at least the Tokyo Olympics. So being able to make your best race when it really matters."

MONACO — A new era in European club football began on Thursday when the draw took place in Monaco for an expanded UEFA Champions League featuring a radically changed format.

European football's governing body is selling what it describes as "a thrilling new future" for the game on the continent with more teams playing more matches, and more prize money on offer.

UEFA needs to generate hype around the new format, because there is a risk — in the beginning at least — that fans will find it confusing compared to the old model.

For the last 21 years, the Champions League had consisted of a group stage in which 32 clubs were split into eight groups of four, each playing six games. The top two in each group qualified for the knockout phase.

The new version will feature 36 clubs with everyone playing eight matches, but all teams pooled together into one giant league rather than in groups.

Clubs will still be split into four seeded pots of nine teams, with every participant given two opponents from each pot.

The top eight in the final ranking go through to the last 16, while the next 16 sides advance to an intermediate play-off round and the remainder go out.

The new format was introduced against the backdrop of the threat by Europe's biggest clubs to break away and form their own Super League.

But UEFA are also hoping the format can be a solution to the problem of competitive imbalance in the sport which was making the group stage more predictable.

"The new format will introduce a better competitive balance between all the teams, with the possibility for each team to play opponents of a similar competitive level throughout the league phase," UEFA say.

Financial rewards 

What the changes will certainly not address are concerns about too much football being played and damaging the quality as a result.

The increasing demands on players, and the lack of rest as a result, were cited as reasons why many matches at Euro 2024 proved disappointing.

The new Champions League, in a season which is also set to finish with the first expanded version of FIFA's Club World Cup, will feature a total of 144 games in the group stage, up from 96 before.

The financial rewards are greater, however, with UEFA's total prize pot for the Champions League rising by about 25 percent to almost 2.5 billion euros ($2.79 billion).

The winners of the competition can pocket over 86 million euros just in prize money, not including bonuses of 700,000 euros for every point gained in the league phase or income from television.

Real Madrid were the winners last season, raising the trophy for the sixth time in the last 11 years.

The addition of Kylian Mbappe to their squad means they will hope to go all the way again, and emerge victorious in the final in Munich on May 31, next year.

Newcomers 

This season's Champions League will include newcomers such as Girona from Spain, while Bologna of Italy take part in Europe's elite club competition for the first time in 60 years.

Brest of France had never qualified for any European competition before, but now take part after finishing third in Ligue 1 last season — taking advantage of the extra place handed to France as the fifth-ranked league in Europe.

As for the other additional places, one goes to a national champion who will emerge from the qualifying rounds, while Italy and Germany get an extra team each because of the performances of their clubs in Europe last season.

UEFA said the draw itself will be a "hybrid" affair, between the manual drawing of balls and the use of software, having calculated that doing it all by hand would take more than three hours.

The Europa League and Conference League, the draws for which will both take place on Friday, will also now feature 36 teams, although there will be only six matches for clubs in the league phase of the latter competition.

NEW YORK — Coco Gauff joined Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz on the US Open scrap-heap on Sunday as the defending champion crashed out to Emma Navarro in a blizzard of mistakes.

Third-ranked Gauff slumped to a 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 fourth round defeat on the back of 19 double faults and 60 unforced errors.

The 20-year-old's exit means Serena Williams remains the last woman to successfully defend the US Open title back in 2014.

"I lost in the first round the last two years and now to be making the quarter-finals is pretty insane," said fellow American Navarro, who will face Spain's Paula Badosa for a place in the semifinals.

"This is the city I was born in and it feels so special to be playing here. Coco is an amazing player. I have a ton of respect for her and I know she's going to come back here and win this thing again."

Gauff's loss was another body blow to the season's final Grand Slam.

Djokovic, the defending men's champion, was knocked out in the third round to suffer his earliest exit in 18 years.

Fellow crowd-pleaser Alcaraz, the 2022 winner in New York and reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, was stunned in the second round.

'Gave it my all' 

"I gave it my all," said Gauff. "Obviously there were things execution-wise, where I was like, I wish I could serve better. I think if I did that, it would have been a different story."

Navarro had defeated Gauff at Wimbledon in July and was dominant again on Sunday from the outset.

The 23-year-old broke for 4-2 in the first set and sealed the opener in the ninth game where one rally stretched to 27 shots.

Gauff recovered from a break down in the second set to level the tie, but it was a brief respite as she served up three more double faults in the third game of the decider to slip a crucial break down again.

New York-born Badosa reached her first US Open quarter-final with a 6-1, 6-2 win over China's Wang Yafan.

Despite the one-sided scoreline, the first two games took 17 minutes. Badosa saved all eight break points she faced.

"It was so humid I thought I was going to die," said the 26-year-old.

Alexander Zverev, who blew a two-set lead to lose the 2020 final to Dominic Thiem, made his fourth quarter-final by beating Brandon Nakashima of the United States, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Fourth-ranked Zverev served 14 aces and clubbed 51 winners past the 50th-ranked Nakashima.

Up next is a last-eight clash with US 12th seed Taylor Fritz, who came back from two sets down to triumph in the pair's dramatic fourth round clash at Wimbledon in July.

"That was an amazing match. I expect a tough battle -- it always is when I face Taylor," said Zverev.

Fritz knocked out 2022 runner-up and eighth-ranked Casper Ruud 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2 on the back of 24 aces to reach his third Grand Slam quarter-final of the year.

'Stay patient' 

Alexei Popyrin, the 28th-ranked Australian who shocked 24-time major winner Djokovic, has yet to make a Slam quarter-final.

In the night session, he was battling flamboyant Frances Tiafoe, the 20th-ranked shot-maker who made the semi-finals in 2022 and last-eight 12 months ago.

With Djokovic and Alcaraz eliminated, home fans are dreaming of a first American men's Grand Slam champion since Andy Roddick captured the US Open in 2003.

Waiting in the quarter-finals will be Grigor Dimitrov, the ninth-seeded Bulgarian who put out Russian sixth seed Andrey Rublev, 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 1-6, 3-6, 6-3.

Dimitrov last made the quarter-finals in 2019 when he defeated Roger Federer in five sets in what proved to be the Swiss legend's final appearance in New York.

"I was playing fairly good today in the first two sets," said 33-year-old Dimitrov, the oldest player left in the men's draw.

"But for some reason, my body got tired a little bit and he wasn't going to give up the match. I had to stay patient."

Women's second seed and Australian Open champion Aryna Sabalenka, runner-up to Gauff last year, eased into a fourth successive quarter-final by seeing off Belgium's Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-4, unleashing 41 winners.

Sabalenka will next face either Zheng Qinwen or Donna Vekic who were facing off in a repeat of the Olympic Games final won by the Chinese star.