With the WTA Year-End No. 1 ranking already secured before she even stepped onto the practice court in Riyadh, Aryna Sabalenka has been free to focus solely on capturing an elusive first WTA Finals title.
WTA Finals: Scores | Draws | Order of play
And the early returns are promising.
Sabalenka faced some resistance in her opening match against No. 8 seed Jasmine Paolini, but never appeared in serious danger, cruising to a 6-3, 6-1 win in 70 minutes Sunday at King Saud University Indoor Arena.
The victory, coming in her 500th career match, gives Sabalenka an early lead in Stefanie Graf Group and improves her overall WTA Finals record to 9-8.
Despite the scoreline, Sabalenka said it’s never easy matching up against Italy’s top-ranked player.
“We’ve played a lot, and every time it’s a tough battle,” Sabalenka said after the match. “It doesn’t matter what the score is. I know I always have to stay focused, and if you give her an opportunity, she’s going to step in and take control of the game. So, I think I’m most happy with my focus today.
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“I was calm, and it felt like everything was under control.”
That certainly appeared to be the case, as little went Paolini’s way throughout the match.
Ultimately, Sabalenka’s early success going to her backhand and some timely serving told the story.
Backhand dominance: Sabalenka didn’t wait long to make her first move in the chess match that often plays out between these two. After winning the coin toss and electing to serve, she held to open the match and then immediately broke Paolini with a crosscourt backhand winner for a 2-0 lead.
It was a sign of things to come.
Sabalenka finished with 24 winners, many off the backhand, including another down the line that gave her a 3-0 lead. After Paolini responded with a hold and a break of her own to close the gap to 4-3, Sabalenka broke right back, once again going to the backhand to force deuce, before mixing in a forehand winner to regain control.
Serving precision: While her return game built the 5-3 lead, Sabalenka’s serve took over in the final game of the opening set. She erased a 0-30 deficit with back-to-back aces, then hit two more to seal the set in 36 minutes.
She piled up 11 aces on the day with zero double faults, but it was her placement — especially out wide — rather than the speed and raw power of her serve, that proved most effective against Paolini.
Early in the first set, Sabalenka used that angle to save a break point and force deuce. Though she was eventually broken, she took note and returned to that spot later, resulting in a couple of the aces she hit in that final game.
In the second set, Sabalenka varied her serve more, especially in key moments. Facing double break point, she hit an unreturnable serve out wide, then followed with another ace and a forehand winner to hold. Leading 4-1, she again combined a winner, this time off the backhand, and an ace, this time down the T, to close out a game, capitalizing on the different aspects of her game she had firing on all cylinders.
Serving to stay in the match, Paolini jumped out to a 40-0 lead in the next game, but Sabalenka won five straight points, finishing with a forehand winner, to secure the victory and begin her WTA Finals campaign in style.
One-sided rivalry: The result marked Sabalenka’s fifth straight win over Paolini and her sixth in seven meetings.
Even more daunting for the Italian: she has now dropped 10 consecutive sets to Sabalenka, dating back to her last win over the world No. 1 at Indian Wells in 2022.
That stretch includes a loss in the round-robin stage of last year’s WTA Finals, which is perhaps not the most surprising given Sabalenka’s mindset coming into these matches.
“I don’t focus on round-robin,” Sabalenka said. “I take this tournament as a regular tournament. I have to win five matches if I want to win the title. So, I’m just going at it as if every time is the last time, and I’m just trying to bring my best tennis and fight for every point.”
Sunday’s result gave Sabalenka her 12th top 10 win of the season, and her 60th win overall, the first time she’s reached that milestone in a single year.
Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek (62) are the first duo to claim 60 or more wins in a calendar year since Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska in 2013.