World No. 1 Sabalenka Navigates Challenging Boulter Match To Advance At China Open

| by Evita Mueller

Aryna Sabalenka played her second match at the China Open and once again won, though she had to fight against an inspired Katie Boulter.

The Belarusian is enjoying her week in the Chinese capital, having won both matches she played at the WTA 1000 event. The first one came two days ago, and it was actually her first match as the world number one. This one was the second one she played, but the end result was the same - she won comfortably.

Taking on Boulter is easier said than done because the British player has been really solid this year, much more so than before. Even this match, despite being a loss, was contested pretty well by her, all things considered.

The opening set was pretty close, even though Sabalenka had some early break points. The Brit actually broke first, taking a 4-3 lead, but then gave back her serve at 5-4 when she was supposed to serve out the set.

Sabalenka then barely held her serve for the 6-5 lead, saving multiple break points before finally closing out the set 7-5. That late swing from 4-5 to 7-5 was a huge one because she won a set where she faced 10 break points and didn't serve that well.

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The serving woes came out of nowhere and were a huge obstacle for Sabalenka, giving Boulter chances on her serve. That wasn't the case in the match against Kenin, where she was amazing. Despite losing the opening set in such a brutal fashion, Boulter remained calm and kept playing her game.

The second set was equally close as the first one, with no break chances on either side in the first few games. Sabalenka opened up about the pressure of being number one admitting that it doesn't change too much for her.

She certainly didn't approach this match any differently than the previous one, but didn't play on the same level. Boulter wasn't going away and actually broke her opponent first, again taking a 5-4 lead in the second set.

Sabalenka wasn't going to lose the set, so she broke back immediately with the match ending up in a tiebreak. She would outplay Boulter comfortably to win the match. The final score was 7-5 7-6(2).

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