Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) advanced to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, which have a prize pool of 15.25 million USD. The world’s tennis number one defeated Jasmine Paolini (Italy) by 2-0 (6:3, 7:5).
The Belarusian tennis player has two victories in two matches and is in first place in the ranking in group “A”.
Aryna Sabalenka has won 22 of her last 23 matches, winning three major tournament titles during that streak.
In the first set, Aryna Sabalenka took a 4:0 lead and then had no trouble taking the lead in the match. In the second set, the Italian, ranked fourth in the WTA ranking, led by 2:0 and 4:2, but allowed a reversal and lost 5:7 after 91 minutes of play.
On Wednesday, Aryna Sabalenka will face Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) in her last match of the group stage.
In the other match of the group, Qinwen Zheng (China) prevailed by 2-1 (7:6, 3:6, 6:1) against Elena Rybakina. The Olympic champion became the second representative of China after Li Na to win a match in the WTA Finals.
In the third set, the Kazakhstani tennis player allowed two breaks and registered her first defeat in a total of three meetings with Qinwen Zheng.
Before that, the Chinese tennis player led the result after the tiebreaker in the first part, and Elena Rybakina equalized after two breaks and 6:3.
Aryna Sabalenka leads the rankings with two wins, ahead of Jasmine Paolini and Qinwen Zheng, who have a win and a loss. Elena Rybakina has suffered two losses and has no chance of advancing to the semi-finals.