World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was broken in the opening game Wednesday night and tested throughout by Polina Kudermetova, but ultimately showed the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd why she\u2019s the defending US Open champion.<\/p>\n
US Open: Draws<\/a> | Scores<\/a> | Order of Play<\/a><\/p>\n Sabalenka prevailed 7-6 (4), 6-2 in 1 hour and 36 minutes to reach the third round and keep her title defense on track.<\/p>\n The win marks her 30th career main-draw victory at the US Open.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the first set, I was super tight and super aggressive,\u201d Sabalenka said after the match. \u201cIt felt like there were almost no points. It was more about the serve and first shot and it was super quick. I\u2019m glad that I was able to handle that pressure and put it back on her and get that first set.<\/p>\n \u201cThen in the second set, I felt much better on the return game and my serve was much better. So, I\u2019m really glad that in the first set I stayed really strong.\u201d<\/p>\n Wednesday\u2019s second-round match was their second meeting of 2025, after Sabalenka defeated Kudermetova in January to win the Brisbane International title.<\/p>\n As she did in Australia, Kudermetova gave the World No. 1 everything she could handle in the first set this time around.<\/p>\n After Sabalenka saved four break points in the first game, Kudermetova finally converted the fifth chance to go up an early break. Sabalenka responded immediately, breaking back in the next game, but Kudermetova\u2019s barrage of forehand winners kept the pressure on, forcing a tiebreak<\/p>\n That\u2019s when \u201cTiebreakalenka\u201d lived up to her nickname, winning her 19th tiebreak of the season in 20 attempts.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d Sabalenka said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to stay aggressive. I\u2019m trying to fight for every point, and I know that every point can be a key moment of the set, so I\u2019m just trying to stay strong and I\u2019m just trying to play aggressive.\u201d<\/p>\n After trading holds early in the second set, Sabalenka struck first, breaking for a 2-1 lead. Following a medical timeout for Kudermetova\u2019s right knee during the ensuing changeover, the defending champion pulled away, securing a second break to close out the match.<\/p>\n Sabalenka will face 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in the third round.<\/p>\n The two have faced each other just once in their careers, having last met in the semifinals of the aforementioned 2021 US Open, when Fernandez won in three sets.<\/p>\n Paolini reaches third round, knocks Jovic out of home Slam<\/p>\n Jasmine Paolini advanced to the third round of the US Open for the second consecutive year, defeating 17-year-old American Iva Jovic 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n Paolini broke Jovic\u2019s serve five times in the 1-hour, 26-minute match.<\/p>\n Despite the scoreline, the contest was competitive, with Paolini saving her best stuff for the biggest moments, saving nine break points out of the 11 she faced.<\/p>\n The Italian now holds a 2-0 record against Jovic in head-to-head matchups.<\/p>\n Next, Paolini will face former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the third round. It will be their first meeting in a WTA Tour main draw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka was broken in the opening game Wednesday night and tested throughout by Polina…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103362,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593,5452],"class_list":{"0":"post-103361","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis","12":"tag-text"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103361","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103361"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103361\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}