After struggling for more than a set, Aryna Sabalenka finally found her best tennis to turn around the match against Varvara Gracheva and book a spot in the 3rd round of the 2023 Wimbledon.
Aryna Sabalenka arrived in London as the second favourite behind Elena Rybakina and so far it's been going pretty solid. A rather quick win in round one wasn't followed by a quick win in the second round. She faced quite a bit of adversity in this one but managed to overcome it and win in three sets. Wins like this are arguably more important than easy ones.
The opening set of the match was a very interesting one because the scoreline 6-2 seemed fitting but the two belonging to Aryna Sabalenka was the surprising stat. Gracheva hasn't been the strongest player on grass, unlike Sabalenka whose game seems quite well-suited for this type of tennis.
Still, it was the former Russian player who got it done. Representing France since recently, Gracheva baited Sabalenka into 16 unforced errors in the opening set which only had eight games. Two unforced errors per game was obviously too much for Sabalenka who was searching for rhythm the entire set. She didn't serve that well either and that certainly didn't help.
Gracheva herself wasn't that spectacular but she did enough by limiting the amount of errors as well as saving six of seven break points she faced. The second set was a bit more convincing by both players due to some struggles that persisted. Sabalenka served a bit better and showed more control in her game which was good enough to keep Gracheva away from chances.
On return though, the Belarusian still struggled to create too much pressure as we were cruising towards a tiebreak. It didn't happen as Sabalanka finally found a breakthrough to take the second set 7-5 avoiding a 2nd loss at Grand Slams this year.
After taking the second set Sabalenka finally started to play the way she can play. The serve started working as she was finally controlling the ball much better which left Gracheva pretty much powerless during rallies.
It was particularly evident as the match went on and Sabalenka exerted even more control over the rallies. Gracheva responded by trying to be more aggressive as she was down a break and she needed to do something to get back into the match.
It didn't really work because trading blows with Sabalenka is never really a great idea. Predictably it didn't work out in her favour as she racked up 11 unforced errors in only 5 games of play. By then Sabalenka was already up 5-2 and the Belarusian finished things off with a solid serving game.
The final score was 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 for Sabalenka who raised her level a lot after escaping with the second set. Her serve was very crucial in her turnaround as she completely shut down Gracheva on return and as Sabalenka started to play better, the French player got increasingly more nervous.
Gracheva had 12 unforced errors in the final set after having 14 combined in the opening two sets. Sabalenka finished with 8 aces and 27 winners as four of the aces came in the final set. Champion-level stuff from the Belarusian.
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