Number 4 seed and this year’s Shenzhen Open champion Aryna Sabalenka beat Alison Van Uytvanck 6-1 6-4 in 70 minutes at the Ladies Open in St. Petersburg
Sabalenka saved four of the five break points she faced and converted four of her eight break point chances. The Belarusian player broke serve in the second game with a backhand volley on break point and held serve at love to build up a 3-0 lead. She converted her third break point at 4-1 with a backhand winner and closed out the the opening set in the seventh game.
Sabalenka fended off four break points at the start of the second set, but she dropped her serve in the fourth game to trail 1-3. Van Uytvanck faced three break points at 3-3 after two unforced errors and a double fault. The Belgian saved the first break point with an ace, but Sabalenka got the second consecutive break for 4-3. Sabalenka went down 0-30, as she was serving for the match at 5-4, but she reeled off four consecutive points and converted her match point with an ace to set up up a quarter final against Russian qualifier Ekaterina Alexandrova, who beat Tereza Martincova 7-5 6-2 reaching her fourth WTA Premier-level quarter final.
“It was a great match, i was a great start actually. In the second set, I had a little bit of problems with my serve, but I am happy that I could win this set because I did not want to play three sets. It’s just on the paper that I am a top 10 player. I still need to go on the court. I need to play my best tennis, put everything on the court, push myself through everything”, said Sabalenka.
Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova beat 2017 Roland Garros champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-4 6-4 after 1 hour and 24 minutes. Pavlyuchenkoa fended off six of the seven break points she faced and broke serve three times.
Ostapenko got an early break at the start of the match, but Pavlyuchenkova broke back in the next game. Pavlyuchenkova broke again in the seventh game at 15 and did not look back in next two service games to close out the first set 6-4. The Russian player earned the break in the seventh game and saved two break points in the eighth game to hold her serve for 5-3. She served out the match at 15 in the 10th game.
Kiki Bertens cruised past Yasline Bonaventure 6-4 6-2 in 61 minutes. The Dutchwoman won 28 of her 31 first serve points and fended off three of the four break points she faced.
The first serve went on serve until the eight game before three consecutive breaks. Bertens got two breaks to seal the first set. Bertens broke twice in the second and eighth games to claim the second set 6-2.
