LONDON — Aryna Sabalenka trailed by a set, then twice was down a break in the third before grabbing the last three games to reach the Wimbledon semifinals by overcoming 104th-ranked Laura Siegemund 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 at Centre Court on Tuesday.
Sabalenka, No. 1 since last October, never has been to a title match at the All England Club, the only Grand Slam tournament where that’s the case. She won the Australian Open twice and the US Open once, and was the runner-up at this year’s Australian Open (losing to Madison Keys) and French Open (losing to Coco Gauff).
The 27-year-old Belarusian lost in the semifinals at Wimbledon in 2021 and 2023.
On Thursday, she gets a third chance in that round. Sabalenka will meet either No. 13 seed Amanda Anisimova or 50th-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Sabalenka hadn’t dropped a set during this year’s trip to the grass-court major until Tuesday — but she also hadn’t faced an opponent whose style is quite as an unorthodox as that of the 37-year-old Siegemund.
The German, who eliminated No. 6 Keys last week, was the oldest woman in the quarterfinals, as well as the one with the fewest career titles (two).
She arrived at Wimbledon with a career record there of 2-5 and with a 4-9 mark on tour in 2025. She was bidding to become to oldest first-time major semifinalist in the Open era.
Siegemund’s ability to change the depth, speed, angles and spins of her shots frustrated Sabalenka, especially in the final set.
As her mistakes mounted, she would look up at her box with a quizzical expression and raise her hands. After missing one forehand off a short ball, she knelt on the grass near the net.
After breaking Sabalenka for the sixth time of the afternoon, Siegemund was serving up 40-30 to take a 5-3 lead in the final set. But Sabalenka broke right back to open her match-ending run that included winning 12 of the final 16 points.
Since 2022, Sabalenka is 11-3 in majors after losing the opening set; prior to that, she was 2-13.
Sabalenka improved to 12-1 in major quarterfinals, the only loss coming at last year’s French Open against Mirra Andreeva. That’s the second-best record by any woman in the Open era after Chris Evert.
ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
