Faraj Benlahoucine, Media365, published on Saturday November 2, 2024 at 9:42 p.m.
Aryna Sabalenka kicked off the WTA Finals in Riyadh this Saturday with a success against Qinwen Zheng. In this same purple group, Jasmine Paolini then took the measure of Elena Rybakina.
The two women parted ways on October 13 in Wuhan where Aryna Sabalenka got the better of Qinwen Zheng in the final of the tournament. The latter subsequently shone in Tokyo where she won the third title of her season before returning to the world No. 1 this Saturday at the opening of the WTA Finals in Riyadh. Freshly inducted to the top of the women’s tennis hierarchy, Aryna Sabalenka once again dominated Qinwen Zheng (6-3, 6-4)achieving her first success as queen of the ATP.
Although she sent fewer aces than her opponent (3 against 8), Aryna Sabalenka showed unfailing solidity on serve, erasing the only break point against her. In return, the Belarusian stole Qinwen Zheng’s throw-in once in each round to finally win in 1h26. In five confrontations, the Chinese has still not managed to shake the power of the winner of the US Open and the Australian Open. The Belarusian therefore took the lead of the purple group before being joined a little later by Jasmine Paolini.
Double finalist in Grand Slam this year, the Italian dominated Elena Rybakina in the other meeting of the day (7-6(5), 6-4). Returning to the competition after two months of absence, the Kazakh committed a whopping 56 unforced errors while Jasmine Paolini only made 22. Following the victory of the first act in the tie-break, the Italian then confiscated his opponent’s service at 3-3 in the second set to fly behind towards glory. His 39th victory of the season.
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