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Aryna Sabalenka needed just 62 minutes to claim a place in the second round of 2023 Wimbledon on Tuesday. The second seed defeated Hungary’s Panna Udvardy 6-3, 6-1 in their opening-round match in Centre Court. Playing under the roof, Sabalenka began the match with a break and ended it with a break.
The 25-year-old gained a quick 2-0 lead after converting on her third break point in the second game of the first set. Udvardy didn’t drop her serve for the rest of the set but she also failed to convert either of the two break points that emerged on Sabalenka’s serve in the set.
Eventually, in the ninth game, Sabalenka converted the set on her second set point. The 82nd-ranked Udvardy won her first service game of the second set. It was also the last game she won on her serve for the remainder of the evening.
Unlike in the first set, she didn’t get any chance of making any breakthrough on Sabalenka’s serve. The higher-ranked player didn’t even get pushed to 30 on her serve. In the seventh game, with Udvardy serving to stay in the match, Sabalenka brought up three match points and converted the win on the first of these three.
Wimbledon: Aryna Sabalenka eager to get going
Sabalenka finished with more than seven times the number of winners her opponent hit – 29 to the latter’s four. She also had 19 unforced errors to her 24-year-old rival’s 13.
For the match, Sabalenka won 62 points to Udvardy’s 37. In the second round, Sabalenka will play either Varvara Gracheva or Camila Giorgi. Another seed who was able to finish her match under the roof was sixth seed Ons Jabeur.
The Tunisian, who reached the 2022 Wimbledon finale, completed a 6-3, 6-3 win over Magdalena Frech in 76 minutes. The 28-year-old will play either Ysaline Bonaventure or qualifier Zhuoxuan Bai. Bai was leading Bonaventure 7-6(0), 4-0 when the matches were first postponed and then cancelled because of rain-related interruption. Photo Credit: WTA Twitter