Aryna Sabalenka, the second-ranked player in the world, began her clay court season with a straight-sets victory over Barbora Krejcikova on Thursday in Stuttgart.
The Belarusian’s win over the 12th-ranked Czech was the fourth time they had met in 2023, with Sa-balenka now leading 3-1.
The Australian Open champion’s win was impressive as she had lost to Krejcikova earlier this season in Dubai. However, Sabalenka gained revenge at Indian Wells and Miami. This was their first meeting on clay, and Sabalenka was never threatened, hitting ten aces and never facing a break point.
With this victory, Sabalenka became the first player to reach the quarterfinals of the Stuttgart tournament. She has been a runner-up in Stuttgart twice before, losing to Ashleigh Barty in 2021 and Iga Swiatek last year.
So far this season, Sabalenka has won 21 matches, which is behind only Jessica Pegula and Elena Ry-bakina, who have won 22 matches each. Wimbledon champion Rybakina also won her match on Wednesday against Jule Niemeier.
Coco Gauff also began her clay court season on Wednesday with a hard-fought, three-set win over Veronika Kudermetova. The American, who was the runner-up at the French Open last year, committed 53 unforced errors with 24 winners, while Kudermetova hit 80 unforced errors to 35 winners. In total, there were 15 breaks of serve. Gauff will now face Anastasia Potapova in the last 16.
Gauff was leading 3-0 and 4-2 in the second set before Kudermetova mounted a comeback. The 19-year-old American served for the match at 5-3 in the decider, but Kudermetova hit back before Gauff prevailed in the tiebreak.
“That was a close one,” said Gauff. “I had opportu-nities in that match. I mean, again, I´m not expecting an easy match. She´s been playing better and better each week. I think that I´m just going to have to keep that aggressive mindset, especially against her, someone who can come up with some big shots.”
On Thursday, top-ranked Iga Swiatek will start her title defense against the highly-regarded Zheng Qinwen from China, who is ranked 25th in the world. —APP
