Following a straight-sets victory over Madison Keys, Aryna Sabalenka now advances to the China Open quarter-finals, extending her winning streak to 15 matches.
The 26-year-old athlete and second top-ranked player in the world just finished the match in a span of 65 minutes, with a performance record of 6-4 6-3. She will now face either Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic or Cristina Bucsa of Spain in the last eight.
Sabalenka’s last defeat was in the quarter-finals of the Canadian Open last August. Out of her 57 singles matches in the 2024 season, the three-time Grand Slam champion has now won 46 of them.
In her current winning streak, Sabalenka has won the US Open and the Cincinnati Open. If she wins the China Open, world no.1 Iga Swiatek can now be pressured. Swiatek has missed participating in the China Open because of personal issues.
Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka won the opening match of the WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, defeating Zheng Qinwen 6-3, 6-4. The Belarusian athlete is having an amazing 2024 season, having won 21 of her last 22 games.
Both athletes, who are in the tournament’s Purple Group, have recently shown exceptional form. Sabalenka has won the Cincinnati Open, the US Open, and has a victory in Wuhan against the same opponent. Zheng is a gold medallist from the Paris Olympics. She has also won at the Tokyo Open.
Highlights of the match
While the first set was tied at 3-2, Sabalenka took advantage of a double fault by Zheng to break her opponent.
Sabalenka broke her opponent for the second time in the match after holding her service to end the first set with a score of 6-3. The second set then ended with a score of 4-4.
Following her victory, Sabalenka must now win her next two group matches to ensure that she keeps her top ranking. If she fails to do so, who will win the top spot will depend on the performance of Iga Swiatek. Swiatek needs to win the title to have a chance of reclaiming the top slot.
Sabalenka said: “I’m super happy with the win, especially against Qinwen. It’s always tough matches, tough battles against her, and I’m really, I’m really glad I was able to finish this match in straight sets.”
The athlete will now battle against Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina for her next matches.
Towards the end of the year, Aryna Sabalenka hopes to be the world’s top-ranked tennis player. Following the news that world No. 1 Iga Swiatek withdrew due to personal circumstances, the Belarusian is the top seed for this week’s China Open, and it now presents Sabalenka with an opportunity to get closer to her goal.
Trailing Iga Swiatek by 2169 points, Sabalenka is presently ranked second in the WTA rankings. She had been first in line between September and October of the previous year, when the Pole passed her. With the season coming to an end, Sabalenka said that one of her primary goals is to regain that top position.
The athlete said: “Of course, that’s one of my goals, to finish the season at world number one… I’m not trying to focus on that, I’m trying to focus on my game. There are only three tournaments left.”
She added: “I’m just trying to bring my best tennis on court. After the season, I’ll see if it was enough to finish the year at number one or have to improve something else to get to number one.”
Amazing year for Sabalenka
After winning a Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open to start the 2024 season, Sabalenka has already had an incredible year.
Things took a turn for the worse in the spring and early summer after she was injured and missed Wimbledon. She was shocked to lose to Mirra Andreeva in the Roland Garros quarter-final. Nonetheless, Sabalenka won the Cincinnati Open and went on to win the US Open, where she defeated Jessica Pegula in the championship match.
“To be called the best player in the world, that means everything…It’s good to know that you’ve been doing the right thing, all of those hours of training wasn’t a waste of time,” Sabalenka declared.
As the top seed in Beijing, Sabalenka advances to the second round with a bye and will play against one of two qualifiers, Mananchaya Sawangkaew or Zarina Diyas.
For the first time this season, Aryna Sabalenka defeated world No. 1 Iga Swiatek to advance to the Cincinnati Open final.
The two had previously faced off in the 2024 Madrid Open and Italian Open finals, with Sabalenka losing both times. Sabalenka, who will move up to the second rank in the world, finally defeated her opponent in straight sets 6-3, 6-3 after failing to convert nine match points.
After winning the match, Sabalenka said: “It sounds like I broke the wall finally… I’m super happy. After such a tough battle against Iga, I’m super happy with the win.”
She will now play against Jessica Pegula in the finals. The American beat Spain’s Paula Badosa 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the other semi-final. Moreover, Pegula has won her past nine matches. A win over Sabalenka would guarantee a double at the Canadian Open and Cincinnati Open.
After a fierce battle, Aryna Sabalenka defeated Zheng Qinwen to win her straight Wuhan Open title.
The world no. 2 took over home favourite Zheng 6-3, 5-7, 6-3. With this win, she achieved her second WTA 1000 title of the season and the seventh of her career. Moreover, Sabalenka is the first player to win the Wuhan Open three times in a row, and she extends her undefeated run at the competition to 17-0, also improving to 4-0 in her matches against Zheng.
Salabenka said: “I felt like I just lost a little bit of focus and I let her come back in the match… I got a little bit frustrated there. It became a three-set match. Balls are getting heavier, it’s the third set, a bit emotional.”
The athlete has now won four titles in the 2024 season, including the Australian Open and US Open. Five of her 17 career titles have come in China, also an Open Era record according to WTA.
In a social media post, Sabalenka wrote: “Third time’s the charm! 😉🏆 Thank you @wuhanopenwta for all of the love and support during this past week 🫶”
Zheng, a gold medallist at Paris 2024, was aiming to be the second Chinese player to win a WTA 1000 event, after Li Na’s victory in Cincinnati in 2012.
She is the first Chinese woman to ever advance to a WTA 1000 final in her home country. She feels encouraged because she won a set against Sabalenka for the first time, even though she lost.
Zheng admitted: “She forced me to see some of the weaknesses in my tactics… I really look forward to training. I look forward to the next match against her.”
She added: “After this loss, I’m feeling excited because I am doing better each time. There’s more room for improvement. I hope that I can close the gap and also can overcome this challenge.”
Zheng moves up to world no. 7 because she reached the Wuhan final. The top seven players will automatically advance to the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Iga Swiatek’s 11-month reign as the top seed in the WTA rankings has come to an end as US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka has risen to be number one.
After an eight-week run at the top of the rankings between September and November 2023, the Belarusian athlete, who also won the Australian Open in January, is back at the top of the rankings.
What happened to Swiatek?
Moreover, Swiatek from Poland dropped to second place after receiving points penalty for missing the required six WTA 500 events. After opting not to participate in the tour’s Asian swing due to exhaustion, Swiatek, who also hired a new coach earlier this month, has only participated in two of the competitions and has not played since the US Open in September.
Swiatek won five titles in the first half of the season, and had once led the rankings by over 4,000 points. However, in the second half of the year, Sabalenka gradually overtook her, adding victories from Wuhan and Cincinnati.
Swiatek’s next opportunity to reclaim the top spot would be the season-ending WTA finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
