Aryna Sabalenka wasted no time in winning her first match at the 2023 Wimbledon against Panna Udvardy making a winning start at SW 19.
Sabalenka wasn't in London last year due to the Wimbledon ban which prevented Belarusians like herself from playing at the event. There were some doubts about her returning to the event due to a visa issue but it got cleared and Sabalenka is in London.
She was quite motivated to return to Wimbledon because the last time she was there, she made the semi-final coming quite close to making the final. She's widely considered one of the favourites to win the event, probably the biggest behind Rybakina with a chance to become world number one as well.
Her first match went really well taking only 63 minutes to end. The first set was pretty strong from Sabalenka who dominated play with her groundstrokes putting up 18 winners. She had 17 unforced errors in total but she could afford it as Udvardy couldn't really counter, posting only 3 winners in total.
The second set was even more impressive from Sabalenka as it lasted a total of 11 minutes less compared to the first one. Once again Sabalenka demonstrated her destructive power hitting 10 winners. Udvardy's defeat was hastened by her own attempt of being more aggressive but it didn't end well as he had only 1 winner and 9 unforced errors.
Sabalenka served well in both sets; that's a crucial thing for her which will be important throughout the event. Any time she can post a line of 8 aces and only 2 double faults is going to be a good day for her on the grass. The final score was 6-3, 6-1 in 63 minutes of play behind 28 winners.
It was as good as you can hope and she'll hope to keep that going in the next round against either Gracheva or Giorgi. She might have to wait for a while to find out who she's facing due to the rain in London but she won't mind the added prep time. After the match, Sabalenka admitted that she missed competing in London.
I didn’t realize how much I missed this place til this match. Thank you everyone for coming. Thank you everyone for supporting. It really means a lot for me.
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