"It was a tough match and she played unbelievable tennis" - Sabalenka after beating Zhang for Cincinnati semifinal

Aryna Sabalenka is slowly starting to find her game as she defeated Shuai Zhang 6-4 7-6(1) in the Western & Southern Open quarterfinal.

The Belarussian needs wins like these because her level has been going up and down throughout the year. Known as a pretty strong server, Sabalenka is dealing with her service not working at all for the majority of the year which causes her to have double-digit double faults nearly every match. Some of that was on display against Zhang as well and she was happy just to grind out the win:

"I'm super happy that, even if my serve didn't work well today in the second set, I was able to stay focused in return games. I did everything I could to stay focused in return games."

The 2nd set was the crucial one as it went to a tiebreak which Sabalenka won comfortably 7-1. She knew it was going to be a tough match as Zhang was playing at a very high level:

"It was a tough match and she played unbelievable tennis."

The Chinese player had only 7 unforced errors which seem like nothing compared to Sabalenka's 31. Zhang also tallied only 15 winners while Aryna had 43 and that was another deciding factor. The Belarussian stares another tough contest in the face as she will face Caroline Garcia for a spot in the final.

She will see a lot more winners on the other side in that one so she needs to stay sharp and serve well. She even hired a biomechanics specialist to suggest some modifications to her motion showing high commitment to getting better.