Sabalenka Crushes Teenage Prodigy Fruhvirtova To Advance At Australian Open
Last year's champion, Aryna Sabalenka, is through to the third round of the 2024 Australian Open after beating talented 16-year-old Brenda Fruhvirtova.
This year's Australian Open saw three 16-year-olds advance to the second round, which was a huge thing for women's tennis. A few big talents are coming up, such as Mirra Andreeva, who just bested Ons Jabeur in two sets, and Brenda Fruhvirtova.
Linda's younger sister took on Sabalenka on Day 4 of the tournament, and she fought bravely even though she was overpowered rather quickly. Fruhvirtova would always have problems against the Belarusian because there is just a huge difference in the power either can generate on the ball.
Much stronger players get overpowered by Sabalenka regularly. It started that way as the Belarusian took an early 2-0 lead; however, some brave fighting by Fruhvirtova pulled the break back.
She held her own for a few games as Sabalenka was misfiring a bit too much, but the Belarusian found better solutions as the match went on. She took the opening set 6-3 and then opened with an early break 2-0 in the second set.
By this time, Sabalenka was fully in rhythm, and she was just hitting the ball really hard from the baseline. The Czech player simply struggled to keep up, which is normal; she's 16.
Overall, she left a really strong impression, but it was just not strong enough. Sabalenka would finish things off in two sets, with the final score being 6-3 6-1, as she cruised into the third round.
The teenager simply needed to serve a bit better because when she put the first one in, rallies were pretty decent. Sabalenka simply dominated her second serve as it was too weak.
Brenda Fruhvirtova vs Aryna Sabalenka Match Stats:
| Brenda Fruhvirtova | Aryna Sabalenka | |
| 2 | Aces | 4 |
| 4 | Double Faults | 3 |
| 53% | First Serve % | 55% |
| 59% (17/29) | Points Won After First Serve % | 81% (21/26) |
| 38% (10/26) | Points Won After Second Serve % | 59% (13/22) |
| 50% (1/2) | Break Point Conversion | 67% (4/6) |
| 7 | Winners | 30 |
| 17 | Unforced Errors | 22 |
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