© Manuela Davies/USTA
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Maryna Zanevska 6-3, 6-2 in their first-round encounter at the US Open in Tuesday’s evening session. The world no. 2 had a bit of a stumble in the first set but promptly set herself back on course to finish the match after 78 minutes of play.Sabalenka didn’t miss much to start the match and was quickly able to get a double-break lead in the first set.
However, a slight lapse in concentration on Sabalenka’s part coupled with Zanevska finding her momentum led to the second seed handing over one of the two breaks back to her opponent. However, Sabalenka broke back right away, in the eighth game, and went on to consolidate the break by serving the set out in the following game.Zanevska retaliated by securing a break on Sabalenka’s opening service game of the second set to open up a 2-0 lead for herself.
As it turned out, the Belgian wasn’t able to win any more games in the set as Sabalenka ran away with it with her consistent and powerful groundstrokes. This despite that Sabalenka went 0 for three on second-serve points won.For the match, Sabalenka finished with three times as many winners as her opponent’s nine and had 10 more…
