Aryna Sabalenka vs Paula Badosa Tips, Prediction & Live Stream - Sabalenka to return to AO final

Sabalenka has won 32 of her last 33 matches on Australian soil and is backed to make another final at Melbourne Park, with the Belarusian striving to become the first woman since Martina Hingis between 1997-99 to achieve a three-peat down under. Badosa has put together an outstanding tournament to reach a maiden major semi-final, especially after all her injury troubles, but she's lost her last five previous meetings with Sabalenka. In three of their last four completed meetings, Badosa has failed to win more than 10 games, so that's our best bet for this clash as Sabalenka targets a 20th consecutive victory in Melbourne.

Sabalenka leads 5-2. Badosa won their first two encounters back in 2021, but Sabalenka has turned the tables, prevailing in the last five.

Sabalenka has been the undisputed best player on hardcourt over the last couple of seasons and the World No. 1 is looking good to make it three consecutive Australian Open titles over the next few days.

After finishing 2024 with titles at Cincinnati, the US Open and Wuhan, along with a semi-final at the WTA Finals, Sabalenka has registered a 10-0 record to launch 2025.

The World No. 1 took out the Brisbane International title before turning her attention to Melbourne, with Sabalenka winning her opening four matches in straight sets over Sloane Stephens, Jessica Bouzas Maneiro, Clara Tauson and Mirra Andreeva.

Sabalenka was handed her first true test of the Australian Open in the quarter-finals by Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, with the Russian breaking her serve on five consecutive occasions at one point. However, after a second-set lapse, Sabalenka regrouped to emerge a 6-2 2-6 6-3 winner and return to the AO semi-finals.

After dropping as low as No. 140 in the world last year after dealing with various injury problems, Badosa has done an excellent job of swiftly rebuilding her ranking, propelling herself back towards the top 10.

Indeed, Badosa has now won 27 of her last 35 matches, reaching the semi-finals in Cincinnati, Beijing and Ningbo, along with the quarter-finals of the US Open towards the end of 2024.

Badosa failed to win back-to-back matches in Brisbane and Adelaide, but she's raised her level for the Australian Open, reaching the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in her career.

The former World No. 2 has only dropped one set all tournament and recorded one of the biggest wins of her career in the quarter-finals, defeating third seed Coco Gauff in straight sets, 7-5 6-4.