Madrid (Spain) – The debut of Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA 1000 in Madrid, where she defends the title she won last season, was not easy at all. This Friday, she faced the Polish Magda Linette, who managed to take a set from the world number 2 and sold the defeat dearly, falling only after 2h09 of battle, with partials of 6/4, 3/6 and 6 /3.
Classified for the third round of the tournament, the Belarusian will face the winner in the duel between Katie Boulter, seed 26, and Robin Montgomery. Sabalenka beat the 27-year-old British woman and currently 28th in the world on the three times they faced each other so far and would have an unprecedented duel against the 19-year-old American and 183rd ranked in the WTA.
Although she came away with the victory, Sabalenka finished the match with fewer points scored than her rival (90 to 92). Linette was also superior in terms of her service, winning 66% of points compared to 65% for the Belarusian, who asserted her superiority in important points, converting two of the six break-points she had and saving eight of the nine she faced against.
Rybakina and Garcia also advance
Fourth pre-classified, Kazakh Elena Rybakina also confirmed her favoritism in her debut and easily beat Italian Lucia Bronzetti, scoring a final score of 6/4 and 6/3 after 1h15 of confrontation. Her next opponent at Caixa Mágica will come from the match between Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk and Egyptian Mayar Sherif.
Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia, seeded 21st, also qualified for the third round in Madrid. She faced Chinese Xinyu Wang and won by 2 sets to 0, with partials of 6/1 and 6/4. Garcia will now face whoever passes the clash between Moldova’s Victoria Jimenez and Italy’s Jasmine Paolini.
Russians remain firm in the tournament
Last year’s sensation, when she reached the round of 16 at just 15 years old, Russian Mirra Andreeeva scored another comeback. After beating the American Taylor Townsend in the first round, she now defeated the Czech Linda Noskova, seed 29, with the final score of 4/6, 6/3 and 6/3, waiting for the Czech Marketa Vondrousova or the North -American Shelby Rogers.
Also a turning point came the victory of Daria Kasatkina, who asserted her status as 10th favorite over the home tennis player Cristina Bucsa, triumphing with odds of 5/7 7/6 (7-5) and 6/3. The Russian will face her compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 20th pre-classified and tormentor of the Australian Daria Saville against whom she scored a final score of 6/1 and 6/4.
