Aryna Sabalenka made sure to push her biggest competitor for the World No. 1 spot closer to the wall as she advanced at the 2023 Roland Garros.
Entering the second Grand Slam of the season, the top two seeds on the WTA Tour had one thing on their mind probably more than any other time. Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka entered a direct confrontation for the World No. 1 spot, but all is in the Pole's hands.
If Swiatek wins the title, no matter what the Belarusian does, she will stay the World No. 1. However, if she doesn't, then it all depends on her opponent's result. If Sabalenka lost in the first three rounds, Swiatek needed a quarterfinal appearance to secure the spot.
But in the third round of the tournament, the second seed did everything necessary to make it to the second week of the competition. She took on Kamila Rakhimova from Russia as the two clashed for the first time on the WTA Tour.
At this year's event, Sabalenka faced more off-court pressure than the pressure on the tennis court, and it was like that also in the second match of the day on the Court Philippe-Chatrier. In the first match there, Jessica Pegula was stunned by Elise Mertens, and the Belarusian wanted to avoid that.
In the first four games, both players were quite impressive on their serve, taking care of four comfortable holds and a scoreline of 2-2. But that's when Sabalenka started showing her firing power. She added two more holds, but she also applied extra pressure on the return, resulting in tow breaks of serve and a comfortable set win, 6-2.
The second seed took matters into her hands early on in the second set. She broke already in the second game of the set and after saving the only break point of her opponent in the match in the seventh game, Sabalenka added one more break to win the match 6-2, 6-2 in only an hour and eight minutes.
This win means, that if Swiatek still wants to stay the highest-ranked player on the WTA Tour, she needs more than just the quarterfinal appearance, she needs to make it to the semifinals. In the fourth round, Sabalenka will want to make things even harder for the Pole as she'll meet one of the unseeded players, Sloane Stephens or Yulia Putintseva.
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