Sabalenka Battles Injury To Start No. 1 Charge At Miami Open
WTA
Aryna Sabalenka overcame a thigh injury to beat Shelby Rogers and advance at the Miami Open.
Sabalenka entered this matchup as the huge favorite, yet Rogers is known as a player who can pull an upset or two here and there. She was, after all, playing on home soil, and facing an American on American soil is never easy.
The Belarusian player would ultimately prove victorious in the match, but the main storyline from the match remains the injury that she overcame. It was early in the second set when Sabalenka experienced issues with her left thigh, ultimately calling for a medical timeout after the first game of the second set.
By that time, she had won the opening set 6-4 behind some really solid play. She wasn’t perfect because she wasn’t serving very well and surrendered her serve once by that time, but she also broke twice and dominated most of the rallies with her overpowering strength.
After the medical timeout concluded, Sabalenka opted to continue the match and immediately broke to take a 2-0 lead, holding her serve to make it 3-0 after that. From there, it was mostly an easy cruise, that was until she was supposed to serve out the match.
At 5-3, Sabalenka got broken, which had the potential to complicate this matchup a lot more than she needed. With an injury, she needed to get off the court quickly, and her intent was shown in the next game when she stepped up and broke again to win the match 6-3, 6-4.
It’s been a fantastic year so far for Sabalenka with title runs in Adelaide and Melbourne and a run to the final at Indian Wells recently. That amount of tennis clearly is having an effect on Sabalenka, as her thigh has now started to show issues. After the match, Sabalenka commented on her injury.
“I don’t know, something happened in the second set. We’ll see tomorrow, hopefully I’ll be alright and I’ll be ready for the next match.”
With Iga Swiatek's withdrawal from the event, the Belarusian will have a chance to become the new World No. 1 probably much sooner than she expected and she spoke about the possible challenge for the spot after her second-round match.
"Of course I want to be No.1. Of course I want to win more Grand Slams, which is normal. I think every one of us, everyone wants to do that. Probably that's why it helped me to stay focused and helped me to keep working and just keep doing my best every day."
