After making a good start at the Berlin Open, Aryna Sabalenka stumbled in her second match at the event losing to Veronika Kudermetova.
The Belarusian is a very good grass player as her serve remains a potent weapon that can give a lot of players trouble when it's working well. Two years ago, Sabalenka stood in the Wimbledon semi-final narrowly missing out on the final. Last year she missed it due to the ban but this year she'll make a return to the event.
This year's grass season started well as she earned her 35th win of the season in the first round. Her second match at the Berlin Open proved quite tricky as she faced another great grass player in Kudermetova. The Russian took Sabalenka by surprise outplaying her comfortably in the opening set 6-2.
Despite not serving that well Kudermetova outplayed her opponent in the rallies. She lost only three points on her serve and smashed Sabalanka on the Belarusian's 2nd serve taking 10 of 12 of those points.
The second set saw Kudermetova jump out to an early lead as Sabalenka was all over the place after the first set. It took her a while to find her footing againt but she eventually did, pulling back the break. Neither player was able to create any more chances after that and we went into the tiebreak.
Sabalenka lost the first point in the tiebreak and things quickly fell apart from there. Kudermetova was simply better in rallies once again outplaying Sabalenka, especially on her second serve. The Russian was mostly solid on behind both the first and second and finished things off in the tiebreak.
The final score was 6-2 7-6(2) as she moves on to face compatriot Ekaterina Alexandorova in the quarter-final. They contested the Libema Open final a few days ago and Alexandrova won that match.
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