The Belarusian is clear for her third straight final in Melbourne and can take her third straight title in the year's first Grand Slam tournament.
In Saturday's final, Madison Keys awaits.
The American, ranked number 14, beat the world's number two, Pole Iga Swiatek with 5–7, 6–1, 7–6 (10–8) in a tough, swinging, and dramatic three-setter.
The players broke each other in the end of the third set and the 2 hours and 37 minutes long match went to a deciding tiebreak where Keys was the strongest and reached her first final in Melbourne.
In the end, we both struggled with our nerves and it was about who could be the slightly better of us, and luckily it was me, says Keys in the post-match interview.
Sabalenka, 26, made short work of Spaniard Paula Badosa in the semifinal, winning in two straight sets – 6–4, 6–2 – and celebrated her 20th straight win on the site where she and her tennis seem to thrive the most.
Beat her best friend
It was super tough against a good friend and I'm super happy that I went through, says Sabalenka.
Badosa, who in her quarterfinal beat American Coco Gauff, is the Belarusian's best friend on the tour.
Sabalenka has described Badosa as her soulmate.
But all that was set aside on the Rod Laver arena when Sabalenka drummed on under the closed roof. Badosa couldn't resist but can look back on a highly successful comeback.
Large parts of 2023 had to be devoted to rehabilitation after a back injury and last year she had thoughts of quitting.
Now she's back in the top ten of women's tennis.
Hugged each other
Sabalenka and Badosa united in a long hug directly after the match.
I hope she's still my friend. I'm sure she'll hate me for the next few hours, a day or two, but I'm okay with that, I can handle it.
After that, I think we're friends again and can go out together and shop, says Sabalenka at the press conference.
Besides Hingis (1997-1999), Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Evonne Goolagong, and Margaret Court have won the Australian Open three years in a row.
