Roland Garros: Sabalenka Cruise into next round in Paris

Aryna Sabalenka cruised into the second round of the French Open on Tuesday with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Erika Andreeva on Court Philippe-Chatrieroj Tuesday in Paris.

The two-time reigning Australian Open needed just 1 hour and 8 minutes to move through to the second round and drop the elder of the two Andreeva sisters to 0-3 in Grand Slam main draws in her career.

Already 2-0 against the younger of the two, Top 40-ranked Mirra Andreeva, Sabalenka broke the World No.100’s serve five times, and tripled her opponent’s total of winners, to win her first-ever match against 19-year-old Erika. Sabalenka hit 27 winners to just 16 unforced errors in the 15 games that the two played.

Sabalenka is now 20-5 all-time in first rounds at Grand Slams, but since becoming one of the game’s top players, she’s becoming nearly immune to an opening upset. Three of those losses came in her first four career Grand Slam main draws, and her last, at the 2020 Australian Open, came at the hands of a former Top 10 player in Carla Suárez Navarro.

Sabalenka is now 12-3 on clay this season with all three losses coming to Grand Slam champions in Iga Swiatek (Madrid, Rome) and Marketa Vondrousova (Stuttgart).

Elsewhere, Elena Rybakina started slowly and needed two goes to seal the win. In between, she was near-untouchable as she defeated Greet Minnen 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of Roland Garros.

Rybakina could have faced a fellow Grand Slam champion in the second round, but it was not to be. In a clash between left-handers, Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands defeated three-time major champion Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 6-3.