Aryna Sabalenka kicked off her Indian Wells run with a 7-6 (4) 6-3 win over rising star McCartney Kessler and then warned her rivals that she mentally recovered from the Australian Open final loss and that she was back to feeling “hungry.”
After falling just short to Madison Keys in an absolute thriller final at Melbourne Park and failing to join a selected list of players who completed an Australian Open three-peat, the world No. 1 didn’t look like herself during last month’s Middle East, going only 1-2.
While Sabalenka didn’t clinch a really convincing win against Kessler in her Indian Wells opener, it should be noted that the American – who finished as runner-up in Austin last week – was definitely a very tricky matchup for an opening match.
“I’m hungrier than I was in the Middle East. I mean, it’s way to go. It’s tough to say, like, third month of the season, so I wouldn’t rate my season anyhow,” the three-time Grand Slam champion said.
Sabalenka: In Doha and Dubai, I was thinking about the Australian Open final
At the start of the Middle East, the Belarusian picked up a shock defeat to Ekaterina Alexandrova in her Doha opener. In Dubai, she managed to beat Veronika Kudermetova in her first match but then got dominated 3-6 2-6 by Clara Tauson in her next match.
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