RIYADH, Saudi Arabia: Aryna Sabalenka kicked off her quest for a maiden WTA Finals title by blasting 11 aces on her way to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jasmine Paolini in Riyadh on Sunday.
The world number one was at her serving best, landing a remarkable 81 per cent of her first serves in during the 70-minute contest to shoot to the summit of the Stefanie Graf Group.
Later at King Saud University Indoor Arena, Coco Gauff got her title defence campaign off to a rocky start as she double-faulted 17 times in her 6-3, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 defeat by her fellow American Jessica Pegula.
In a rematch of their Wuhan final from three weeks ago, fifth-seeded Pegula avenged her loss to the world number three, outlasting Gauff in a topsy-turvy battle.
The match witnessed a whopping 14 breaks of serve. Gauff particularly struggled on her second serve, winning just 28 percent of the points behind that shot, and her forehand leaked a worrying 45 unforced errors.
"Coco's a great champion, great competitor, great friend. She was the last person I played in China. I tried my best today to just execute what I could," said Pegula.
"I'm accustomed to those (wild matches) at the end of the year. I've played a lot of three sets lately. I just focused on my strategy and I was very disciplined in that in the third set."
CEREMONY FOR SABALENKA
Sabalenka's win over Paolini was her 60th of the season. She trails only Iga Swiatek on the WTA leaderboard for matches won in 2025.
The 27-year old Belarusian was handed the year-end world number one trophy in a special ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday.
"That felt super special, of course I'm super happy and super proud of the work that has been done and that things are working and I'm getting better and better every day," said the four-time Grand Slam champion.
"I just hope we'll keep doing what we're doing and hopefully we can stay there."
Sabalenka jumped to a 3-0 lead and, despite briefly losing her break advantage, scooped the opening set in just 36 minutes.
She swatted away a pair of break points to hold on to her early lead in the second frame and cruised to the finish line, as Paolini, who is playing singles and doubles this week in Riyadh, ran out of steam.
"She's a tough opponent, we played a lot and every time it's a tough battle, doesn't matter what the score is, I always have to stay focused," said Sabalenka of the eighth-seeded Italian.
"I think I'm mostly happy with my focus today. I was calm and it felt like everything was in control."
Meanwhile, Mirra Andreeva, who lost her doubles opener alongside Diana Shnaider, said her mysterious absence from the Tokyo tournament was a misjudgement. If she had played she could have secured the eighth and final singles spot in Riyadh this week.
Andreeva was leapfrogged by Elena Rybakina at the last hurdle in the Race to Riyadh. She missed out despite winning a pair of 1000-level tournaments and reaching two Grand Slam quarter-finals this campaign.
Rybakina came from behind in the standings late in the season, winning Ningbo and reaching the Tokyo semifinals to punch her ticket to Riyadh.
"We just had a talk with our team and we decided to skip the tournament," the 18-year-old Andreeva said on Sunday.
"In the end, it turned out to be a wrong decision.
"I guess with experience we're just learning. This is just my, not even a second full year on the WTA Tour, so I think we're just going to learn from this, we're going to get more experience from this and next time I think we're not going to make that mistake again." — AFP
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