Aryna Sabalenka roars into sixth major semifinal, dismissing Madison Keys

WATCH: Sabalenka spoke to the media after reaching her second Wimbledon semifinal.

And just like that, it was all Aryna.

No. 2 seed Aryna Sabalenka appeared in trouble as American Madison Keys ostensibly cruised towards a final set of their Wimbledon quarterfinal, leading 40-0 at 4-2 in the second.

Sabalenka won the next 12 points from there, and ultimately sealed the former US Open finalist, 6-2, 6-4 to maintain a perfect 6-0 record in Grand Slam quarterfinals, reach her second semifinal at SW19, and put herself a win away from usurping Iga Swiatek's No. 1 ranking.

"To be honest, I want both," Sabalenka said when asked to pick between the title and the top ranking. "But I'm trying to focus on myself because I know if I'll start thinking about all this stuff, I'm going to lose my focus on court, my game. So I'm trying to focus on myself right now and make sure that every time I'm on the court I bring my best tennis.

"Then later on we'll see if I'm ready to become world No. 1 or if I'm ready to play another final."

Regularly overpowering the big-hitting Keys on Court No. 1, Sabalenka, who was unable to compete at last year's Championships due to the All England Club's ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes, avenged a 2021 grass-court defeat to book a semifinal clash against Ons Jabeur, who shocked defending champion Elena Rybakina in a rematch of their 2022 final.

With Swiatek exiting in the last eight against Elina Svitolina on Wednesday, Sabalenka, who already leads the Pole in the WTA Race rankings and major match wins in 2023, needs to reach the final become No. 1 for the first time. She has largely looked up to the challenge thus far this fortnight, dropping just one set en route to the quarterfinals against Keys, who was enjoying her best Wimbledon result since 2015.

Opening with a break to start the match, Sabalenka surged ahead 5-1 with some remarkable power off the ground and, after a brief break to assess the conditions amid a passing shower, saved a break point to serve out the opening set.

Still, the delay seemed to give Keys some momentum as she began to find her rhythm on own serve serve and put pressure on Sabalenka's. A marathon sixth game seemed to turn the tide towards the No. 25 seed when she scored her first break of the match and serve-and-volleyed her way to within a point of 5-2.

"In those, like, few games, she played unbelievable," Sabalenka said. "When she was serving for 5-2, 40-Love up, I was just, like, kind of telling myself that it's okay, we going to play third set, that's fine. Just try to put a little more pressure on her in this set so she didn't feel that much, like, confidence going into the third set."

Sabalenka regained her composure from there and put on a masterclass in the final 10 minutes, reeling off the final four games to clinch her spot in the final four.

"Lucky me, I won that game somehow, yeah, and turn around that second set."

Though Keys ended the match with three more winners, she also struck eight more unforced errors and managed just seven points behind her (relatively) attackable second serve, giving the reigning Australian Open champion all she needed to find herself in reach of a second Slam title in 2023.