A frustrated Aryna Sabalenka began her China Open title charge with a 6-4, 6-1 win over tricky Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew yesterday. The top seed and world number two is to face Ashlyn Krueger of the US in the round-of-32 in Beijing.
Fresh from winning the US Open, the Belarusian made hard work of an opponent ranked 187 in the world and playing the biggest match of her young career.
The 22-year-old Mananchaya might have been inexperienced at this level but the athletic Thai refused to give up seemingly lost causes.
Photo: screen grab from Chan Hao-ching’s Facebook
Mananchaya struggled though on serve and three-time major champion Sabalenka broke for a 4-2 first-set lead.
The Thai refused to be overwhelmed by Sabalenka’s far greater power and she broke back immediately, to roars of approval from the Beijing crowd.
An error-prone Sabalenka could not get into her groove, but created a first set point on the Thai’s serve, only to put a straightforward volley wide.
She made no mistake on her second opportunity and then broke for 3-1 in the second set.
Sabalenka barely raised a smile at the end.
Also through to the round-of-32 of the WTA 1000 tournament is third seed Jasmine Paolini, but the Italian did it the hard way, fighting back to beat Denmark’s Clara Tauson 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.
In the women’s doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching (詹皓晴) and her Russian partner, Veronika Kudermetova, yesterday defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien (吳芳嫻) 6-4, 6-3, to go through to the round-of-16 where they are to face Czechia’s Karolina Muchova and Spain’s Paula Badosa tomorrow.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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