World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka registered a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon in her US Open opener.
The reigning Australian Open champion, Sabalenka, who has reached the US Open semifinals or better in her past three attempts, will next face Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti, who advanced after New Zealand’s Lulu Sun was forced to retire after losing the first set 6-3.
Against the Italian, Sabalenka owns a 1-0 head-to-head record from a straight-sets win on the hard courts of Brisbane this year.
In just her second career US Open main-draw appearance, the 26-year-old Hon was swinging freely and with assertive power under the lights of Louis Armstrong Stadium. She put pressure on the No. 2 seed and matched her shot for shot, literally, as both women hit five winners and seven unforced errors in the first set.
But it was Sabalenka’s first-serve win percentage (91%) that gave her the edge to take the opening frame without facing a break point. She earned an early break in the second set before Hon converted her first break point of the match to get back on serve at 3-2. and remained unbothered.
The Belarusian sealed her sixth consecutive victory by breaking Hon for a fourth time with a string of clean return winners to lead 4-2 and maintained her lead to secure her 40th win of the season, WTA reports.
Coming off of a shoulder injury that hampered the middle part of her season, the 26-year-old Sabalenka returned to her top form this summer with a quarterfinal appearance in Toronto, a semifinal run in Washington, D.C, and a title in Cincinnati, which she won without dropping a set.
Earlier, France’s Clara Burel rallied from a 0-6, 1-4 deficit to beat 2017 champion Sloane Stephens 0-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the first round.
Burel, ranked No.56 on the WTA Rankings, lost the first nine games of the match before winning her first game at 3-1 in the second set. Stephens served for the win twice, at 5-4 in the second and third sets.
Burel will face former No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the second round. The three-time US Open champion mounted a comeback of her own to advance, defeating Ukrainian qualifier Yulia Starodubtseva 3-6, 6-1, 6-1.
Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova earned her first hard-court win since February, defeating Spanish qualifier Marina Bassols Ribera 7-6(3), 6-2 in just over 90 minutes. Playing in her first hard-court tournament of the summer, the Czech will face Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse next.
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