Britain's Sonay Kartal missed out on a huge chance to knock out top seed Elina Svitolina and reach the semi-finals of the ASB Classic, eventually losing 6-4 6-7 (2) 7-6 (5).

In a tight competitive contest, the British No 3 won a close second-set on a tiebreak to set up a deciding set in Auckland.

Kartal then broke Svitolina in the first game of the third set, and at 4-2 ahead in the set had further break point chances to move to 5-2.

Svitolina dug in to force Kartal to serve for the match at 5-3, where the former broke the latter in the nick of the time as far as the contest was concerned.

Kartal responded to force two further break points in the next game, but Svitolina showed her quality to force deuce and then hold.

Suddenly serving to remain in the match, Kartal kept her nerve to bring things to another tiebreak, but she couldn't come out on top at the second time of asking, missing out on a marquee victory.

"All the credit to Sonay. She played unbelievable. I think she deserved to win more than me today," Svitolina said afterwards.

The rematch between last year's Australian Open finalists was lopsided as Aryna Sabalenka flipped the outcome with a straight-sets win over Madison Keys.

Top-ranked Sabalenka broke Keys' in five straight service games on the way to a 6-3 6-3 win to reach the semi-finals of the Brisbane International, an important tune-up event for the Australian Open which begins on January 18.

"Super happy to get through this difficult match," Sabalenka said. "I didn't really have the throwback to the Australian Open last year, to be honest.

"I know that I lost in Australia against her and it's a big motivation, of course, to go out and get the win. But I always look to the next match as like a new match against a new player. That's my approach."

The defending Brisbane champion will next take on 11th-seeded Karolina Muchova, who had a 6-2 2-6 6-4 win over Elena Rybakina to end a 13-match streak for the No 3 seed.

Muchova has the better of the career head-to-head meetings against 2022 Wimbledon winner Rybakina, who beat Sabalenka to win the WTA Finals championship in November. Muchova also has a 3-1 record against No1 Sabalenka.

"Doesn't matter if I'm the one who is leading head-to-head or I'm the one who is losing - I don't care," Sabalenka said, adding that her focus is to control the kinds of emotions that derailed her sometimes when she was younger.

"In the past, I could lose a match because I'd be so frustrated. Now I'm just trying to move on like, 'OK, whatever,'" she said. "That's my mentality nowadays and I feel like it's been working well for me."

On a warm subtropical afternoon on Pat Rafter Arena, Sabalenka and Keys each had early breakpoint chances but weren't able to convert.

Sabalenka got the first service break in the seventh game for a 4-3 lead and went on a roll, winning six of the next seven games. Keys broke serve to open the second set in the only interruption in that sequence.

The 30-year-old American faced immense pressure on her second serve, with Sabalenka pouncing on anything short or at lower speed, and finished the match with eight double-faults and won just one-third of points on her second serve.

Keys managed to save two match points in the eighth game of the second set but it barely slowed down Sabalenka, who served out at love.

Sabalenka has two straight-set wins over Keys - the other was 6-0, 6-1 at Indian Wells - since that loss at Melbourne Park almost 12 months ago. She also reached the French Open final, won the U.S. Open and finished the competitive season with a runner-up finish at the WTA Finals.

"I'm just trying to get some matches, get some wins," she said, "and get the rhythm going again."

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