Aryna Sabalenka comfortably navigated her third-round match at the 2023 Madrid Open against Maria Camila Osorio.
In the past, the Belarusian didn't always have good results on the clay courts and she had to change her approach on the red dirt. That resulted in a final run at the recent Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, but also Sabalenka's triumph at the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid back in 2021.
Her participation at La Caja Magica over the years has been somewhat weird. Either the Belarusian lost in her first match, like in 2018, 2019, and 2022, or she ended the week with the champion's trophy in her hands, like in 2021.
This year, she started her campaign with a victory over Sorana Cirstea, and if the same trend was to be followed, Sabalenka should become the champion of the 2023 Madrid Open. But as every tennis fan knows, statistics are most of the time very irrelevant and what matters is the present.
And the presence of Sabalenka was something that was felt under the closed roof of the Manolo Santana Stadium. After Daniil Medvedev won the first match of the day on the court, the roof had to be closed due to rain so the world no. 2 could experience a bit more similar conditions to her recent appearance in Stuttgart.
Since the match started, it was obvious that Sabalenka had only one objective. She broke her opponent's serve in the first game, but she couldn't break again in the fifth game, before facing a streak of 11 points by her opponent.
That meant that Osorio was now in the lead, up 4-3 in the first set. But the most-recent Grand Slam champion handled the end of the first set better, winning the last three games and taking the first set, 6-4.
In the second set, Sabalenka built a much larger lead. This time it was by two breaks as the 24-year-old from Minsk led already 4-1. But after a quick medical time out, Osorio was able to show one last spark of hope, as she recovered one of the breaks.
However, Sabalenka proved to be too strong for her as the second seed won the match despiet stumbling once more, and after nearly two hours, she won the match 6-4, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of the 2023 Madrid Open. Up next, she will await either the 17th-seeded Magda Linette or teenage super-talent Mirra Andreeva.
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