What a few weeks it has been for Aryna Sabalenka. Coming agonizingly close to winning the French Open title, the Belarusian star was seen enjoying a vacation with her boyfriend. But the vacation was brief; Sabalenka was back on the court soon after with Wimbledon in sight. Earlier today, she enjoyed a thrilling victory at the quarterfinal of the Berlin Open, which caught the eyes of the tennis world. Sabalenka defeated Elena Rybakina in a keenly fought encounter, which lasted two hours and 42 minutes. After the match, Sabalenka had an unexpectedly modest reaction to her win.

During the post-match interview, the World Number 1 was asked about her close win today. Reacting to it, she said, “Elena is a great player. We had a lot of tough battles, in the very last stages of Slams.. she’s an amazing player. I honestly have no idea how I was able to win those points. I think I got lucky.”

In what was a see-saw battle between the two experienced stars, Sabalenka took the opening set in the tiebreaker 7-6 (8). However, Rybakina fought her way into the match and leveled the scores by winning the second set 6-3. Although the momentum wasn’t with Sabalenka and down 6-2 in the tiebreaker, she kept fighting and won crucial points in the end to prevail in the match by winning the third set 7-6 (6). With this win, she entered the semifinal and now faces Marketa Vondrousova.

Further, Sabalenka also extended her lead over Rybakina in their head-to-head battles. The Belarusian star now has 7 wins out of 11 matches against Rybakina, and this could prove to be a crucial win for her ahead of Wimbledon. Interestingly, Sabalenka wasn’t very keen to participate in Berlin, but it was the only chance for her to warm up for Wimbledon. She was on a holiday and even said, “I wish I was still here in Mykonos, having fun, enjoying my vacation, but here I am in Berlin.”

Meanwhile, the early odds for Wimbledon suggest that Aryna Sabalenka is the favorite to win the title, followed by the likes of Rybakina and Gauff. However, American legend Andy Roddick was surprised by that list.

Andy Roddick questions Wimbledon odds as Aryna Sabalenka dominates

The buzz around the Wimbledon Championships is increasing as the tournament gets nearer and nearer, and people have already started making their predictions for the winner of the tournament. If the odds are to be believed, Sabalenka tops the favorites list, which excludes some big names, according to Roddick. The likes of Jessica Pegula and Barbora Krejcikova didn’t feature anywhere, which surprised Roddick.

Calling out the latest odds of the tournament, he said, “But these odds… like, what the hell are we doing? We have no Paolini, no Krejcikova. We’ve just deleted last year’s final. Jess Pegula can be an absolute monster on grass with her shot and the way that it kind of goes to the corner and her ability to switch directions… we need to review those.”

Nonetheless, Sabalenka stays well on course to taste her first victory at Wimbledon if she continues her current form. Sabalenka’s semifinal match against Vondrousova is scheduled for tomorrow at the Steffi Graf Stadium. It’ll be interesting to see if she can maintain her winning run going into the Wimbledon Championships.