Sabalenka and Spaniard Badosa have enjoyed a strong bond since 2021 but there was no quarter given as the world No 2 kept alive her hopes of a maiden Roland Garros title with a 7-5 6-1 victory.
Sabalenka came close to dropping her first set of the tournament. Badosa broke serve three times in the opener to lead 5-3 before Sabalenka stormed back to win four games in a row, going on to power past her opponent in the second set.
In a tense and dramatic exchange, Sabalenka produced a superb drop shot to set up match point, and the knockout blow came in the form of an unforced error from the racket of the unseeded Badosa, but was quickly followed by a warm hug at the net.
Sabalenka, who is bidding to become the first player since Serena Williams in 2015 to claim the Australian Open and Roland Garros titles in the same season, now eagerly anticipates her upcoming match. She will face American 14th seed Madison Keys or 22nd seed Emma Navarro in the next round.
Meanwhile, World No 4 Elena Rybakina continued to fly under the radar as she enjoyed a routine 6-4 6-2 win over Belgium’s Elise Mertens to ease into the fourth round.
Rybakina, a former Wimbledon champion, is looking to improve on her best performance of quarter-finalist on the Paris red clay, in 2021.
The Russian-born Kazakh lost her serve twice in the first set but maintained the upper hand by breaking all of the Belgian’s remaining serves in the set. Her strong shots and better serving in the second set allowed the 24-year-old Rybakina to end the match in little over an hour.
Switching gears, French fans showed their support for Varvara Gracheva after the Russian-born player beat Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu in her first Roland Garros as a local since switching nationality last year.
Gracheva closed out a hard-fought 7-5 6-3 victory and joined in the singing as she celebrated being the last Frenchwoman left in the women’s draw.
Ranked 39 at the start of the year, her best career ranking, Gracheva fell to 100th place in April after six consecutive tournaments where she was eliminated in the first round.
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