World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka became the first player to reach the quarterfinals at this year’s Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, cruising past 12th-ranked Barbora Krejcikova 6-2, 6-3 in just 1 hour and 15 minutes on Wednesday night.

Reigning Australian Open champion Sabalenka is searching for her first Stuttgart title after reaching the final the last two seasons. Sabalenka finished as runner-up to Ashleigh Barty in 2021 and to Iga Swiatek in 2022.

Read more: Sabalenka putting pieces together on clay

Words from the winner: "I'm super happy with this win, it's always a tough match against Barbora," Sabalenka said afterwards. "I think [my] serve was really working well today. On the return I put a lot of pressure on her so she didn't have that much time."

On facing fellow Grand Slam champion Krejcikova in her opening match of the week (after a first-round bye), Sabalenka said: "It's really difficult, but at the same time it helps me to learn how to stay focused from the first rounds and fight for every point."

Frequent competitors: Sabalenka and Krejcikova have established a marquee rivalry on tour this year, with their Stuttgart showdown marking their fourth meeting in 2023 already, and their sixth meeting overall.

This season, Krejcikova beat Sabalenka for the first time en route to the WTA 1000 title in Dubai, but Sabalenka exacted her revenge twice over, defeating Krejcikova in the Round of 16 of both WTA 1000 Sunshine Double events in Indian Wells and Miami.

In their first career meeting on clay after five hard-court clashes, Sabalenka held command from start to finish, slamming 10 aces, winning 88 percent of her first-service points and never facing a break point.

Sabalenka now holds a 5-1 win-loss record over Krejcikova in total. Wednesday's victory was also Sabalenka's 21st match-win of the season, behind only Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina, who have each won 22 matches so far this year.

Key moments: Sabalenka took control by grinding out a long tussle at 3-2, finally converting her fourth break point of that game after a Krejcikova double fault. Two games later, a backhand return winner gave Sabalenka her second straight break of the Krejcikova serve and the one-set lead.

2021 Roland Garros champion Krejcikova came undone early in the second set as well, where she hit another double fault down break point to hand a quick 2-0 lead to Sabalenka. That proved to be the only service break by either player in the second set.

Krejcikova, making her Stuttgart main-draw debut this year, did save a match point on her own serve at 5-2. However, Sabalenka hit three aces in the following game, including on her second match point, to advance into the elite eight in Stuttgart once again.