Confident Sabalenka rifles into round 2

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the No 5 seed, reached the second round of the Australian Open by winning against Czech Tereza Martincova 6-1, 6-4 at Melbourne Park on Tuesday night.

“I think I need to work on my mindset. I have to be calm and I have to just fight for every point and not get upset with every mistake I’m making – I really believe that this is the only thing missing in my game.”

Aryna Sabalenka

Sabalenka, ranked No 5, has yet to lose a match in 2023 (5-0). She won the title at Adelaide to start the season, defeating Linda Noskova for her 11th career title. The 24-year-old will play American Shelby Rogers next.

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What can get her to the next level?

Asked on court what can get Sabalenka, a three-time Grand Slam semi-finalist who has topped out at No 2 in the WTA rankings, to the next level, she said:

“I think I need to work on my mindset. I have to be calm and I have to just fight for every point and not get upset with every mistake I’m making – I really believe that this is the only thing missing in my game.”

Sabalenka needed just 79 minutes to get past Martincova, winning 87 percent of her first-serve points and cracking 29 winners against 20 unforced errors. She saved all five break points she faced and converted three of six against the Czech.

It was a dominant performance from one of the top favorites in the bottom half of the draw, which is anchored by No 2 seed Ons Jabeur and No 4 seed Caroline Garcia.

Melbourne (Grand Slam), other first-round results (Melbourne Park, hard, USD 24.297.942, most recent results first):

• Tamara Zidansek vs. Ons Jabeur
• Viktoriya Tomova vs. Belinda Bencic
• Alison Riske-Amritraj vs. Marketa Vondrousova
• Sloane Stephens vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Nuria Parrizas Diaz
• Irina-Camelia Begu vs. Elizabeth Mandlik
• Daria Kasatkina vs. Varvara Gracheva
• Claire Liu vs. Madison Brengle
• Mayar Sherif vs. Magda Linette
• Maryna Zanevska vs. Veronika Kudermetova
• Shuai Zhang vs. Patricia Maria Tig
• Lucrezia Stefanini vs. Tatjana Maria
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Lucia Bronzetti vs. Laura Siegemund
• Petra Martic vs. Viktorija Golubic
• Sorana Cirstea vs. Yulia Putintseva
• Donna Vekic vs. Oksana Selekhmeteva
• Lauren Davis vs. Danka Kovinic
• Anett Kontaveit vs. Julia Grabher
• Katie Volynets vs. Evgeniya Rodina
• Xiyu Wang vs. Karolina Pliskova
• Katherine Sebov vs. Caroline Garcia
• Linda Fruhvirtova vs. Jaimee Fourlis: tuesday
• Kaia Kanepi vs. Kimberly Birrell: tuesday
• Camila Giorgi beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova: 6-0, 6-1
• Anna Karolina Schmiedlova (Q) beat Martina Trevisan (21): 6-3, 6-2
• Garbine Muguruza vs. Elise Mertens: tuesday
• Arianne Hartono vs. Shelby Rogers: tuesday
• Leylah Fernandez vs. Alize Cornet: tuesday
• Ekaterina Alexandrova (19) beat Ysaline Bonaventure: 6-2, 6-1
• Taylor Townsend (WC) beat Diane Parry (WC): 6-1, 6-1
• Madison Keys (10) beat Anna Blinkova: 6-4, 3-6, 6-2
• Xinyu Wang beat Storm Hunter (WC): 7-6 (2), 6-4
• Iga Swiatek (1) beat Jule Niemeier: 6-4, 7-5
• Kaja Juvan beat Selena Janicijevic (Q): 7-5, 6-1
• Lin Zhu beat Rebecca Marino: 6-2, 6-4
• Jil Teichmann (32) beat Harriet Dart: 7-5, 6-1
• Elena Rybakina (22) beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto: 7-5, 6-3
• Nadia Podoroska beat Leolia Jeanjean (LL): 6-0, 6-3
• Catherine McNally beat Laura Pigossi (LL): 7-5, 6-1
• Camila Osorio beat Panna Udvardy: 6-4, 6-1
• Kateryna Baindl beat Kamilla Rakhimova: 7-5, 6-7 (8), 6-1
• Barbora Krejcikova (20) beat Sara Bejlek (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Anna Bondar beat Ana Bogdan: 6-2, 2-6, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng (29) beat Dalma Galfi: 6-0, 6-2
• Aliaksandra Sasnovich beat Brenda Fruhvirtova (Q): 7-5, 6-2
• Jelena Ostapenko (17) beat Dayana Yastremska: 6-4, 6-2
• Victoria Azarenka (24) beat Sofia Kenin: 6-4, 7-6 (3)
• Anhelina Kalinina beat Coco Vandeweghe (Q): 6-3, 6-1
• Karolina Muchova beat Lesia Tsurenko (Q): 6-2, 6-1
• Petra Kvitova (15) beat Alison Van Uytvanck: 7-6 (3), 6-2
• Bernarda Pera beat Moyuka Uchijima (WC): 2-6, 6-3, 6-1
• Clara Burel (Q) beat Talia Gibson (WC): 6-3, 6-4
• Maria Sakkari (6) beat Yue Yuan: 6-1, 6-4
• Diana Shnaider (Q) beat Kristina Kucova: 7-6 (6), 7-5
• Marta Kostyuk beat Amanda Anisimova (28): 6-3, 6-4
• Olivia Gadecki (WC) beat Polina Kudermetova (Q): 7-5, 6-1
• Jessica Pegula (3) beat Jaqueline Cristian: 6-0, 6-1
• Coco Gauff (7) beat Katerina Siniakova: 6-1, 6-4
• Emma Raducanu beat Tamara Korpatsch: 6-3, 6-2
• Danielle Collins (13) beat Anna Kalinskaya: 7-5, 5-7, 6-4
• Bianca Andreescu beat Marie Bouzkova (25): 6-2, 6-4
• Cristina Bucsa (Q) beat Eva Lys (Q): 2-6, 6-0, 6-2

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