Sabalenka maintains Zheng stranglehold in winning WTA Finals start

World number one Aryna Sabalenka commenced her WTA Finals campaign in Riyadh on Saturday with a fifth victory in as many meetings against Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen of China, racing to a 6-3, 6-4 victory.

Facing off for the fifth time in the last 14 months, Sabalenka and Zheng opened the action at the first ever professional women’s tennis tournament in Saudi Arabia in front of a near capacity crowd at King Saud University Indoor Arena.

The Belarusian top seed needed just one hour and 24 minutes to defeat Zheng, dropping a mere two points behind her first serve throughout the contest.

A runner-up at the WTA Finals in Texas two years ago, Sabalenka is eyeing a maiden trophy at the prestigious season finale, which would also guarantee her the year-end number one ranking.

“It’s going to mean everything for me, that’s one of my dreams and I really worked hard in the past years and I really hope that one day I’ll be able to hold this beautiful trophy,” said 26-year-old Sabalenka on court.

“Qinwen is such a great player and we always had great battles against each other. She’s playing really aggressive tennis. I’m super happy with the win, especially against such a tough opponent.

“I think I served really well today and I put her under so much pressure on her serve. So I think my serve helped me tonight.”

Very little separated the players in the opening set as both dominated the points behind their first serves, Sabalenka winning 18/19 and Zheng winning 13/16.

But it was the second serve where Sabalenka found an edge, and after she saved a break point in the third game, the top seed broke for a 4-2 advantage and sealed a one-set lead in 39 minutes.

With Chinese supporters representing the majority of the crowd and rallying behind their Olympic hero, Zheng was near clinical through the first eight games of the second set.   

But Sabalenka upped the ante in game nine, converting her second break point opportunity to inch ahead and she closed out the win on her own serve minutes later.

In a bizarre incident, Sabalenka had to wait at the net for a short moment before Zheng realised she had actually lost the match.

Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, has now won her last seven consecutive matches against top-10 opposition.

Zheng acknowledges there are things she must improve ahead of her next group match but was happy she could finally face Sabalenka “like a usual opponen”, so it was positive things for me.”

‘Not concerned’

The world number seven had her right thigh taped during the match and revealed she felt pain in her leg two days ago.

“For the moment I’m not that concerned but we’ll see how it goes in the next two matches,” said the 22-year-old.

After her match, Sabalenka got to meet Brazil football ace Neymar, who performed the coin toss for the next clash between Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina.

Neymar, who plays for Saudi club Al Hilal, gifted Sabalenka a signed jersey and took pictures with her before returning to the stadium to catch the rest of the action.

“It’s cool, right? He watched my match and it’s a pleasure that such big players come to watch me play. I was super happy to see him,” said Sabalenka.

WTA Finals debutante Paolini claimed her third win in five encounters with Rybakina with a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 performance.

Paolini, who also beat Rybakina in the French Open quarter-finals this season, is at a career-high ranking of number four after reaching two major finals in 2024, in Paris and Wimbledon.

“It’s amazing, I’m really happy with the win today. All tough matches here and Elena is playing unbelievable. It’s good to see her back on tour,” said Paolini.

Rybakina, who has dealt with insomnia, allergies, and a back injury in recent months, was playing her first match since she withdrew ahead of her US Open second round 10 weeks ago.