Sabalenka struggles but wins in first match since COVID-19

Aryna Sabalenka played her first official match at the Kremlin Cup and expectedly the Belarussian struggled but won.

World number two Aryna Sabalenka did not take part in the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells as the Belarussian caught COVID-19 shortly before the event was set to begin. Thankfully Sabalenka did not experience any severe symptoms and returned to practice not long after. Today, at the Kremlin Cup, was her official match and the Belarussian won albeit with some struggles.

Tomljanovic won her 1st round match in Moscow and looked solid once again. The start of the match featured solid play by both as neither allowed too much to the opponent. Eventually, Sabalenka found a breakthrough to take a 5-3 lead. She served for the set at 5-4 but lost her serve needing to go to the tiebreak to win the set 7-6(2).

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The 2nd set is where Sabalenka struggled a bit. She took an early 2-0 lead only to give it away right after setting the score at 2-2. Both settled a bit after that but Sabalenka was not simply as sharp as in the first set. Tomljanovic failed to use that to her advantage early but by the end of the set, she found a way and won the 2nd set with 6-4.

Sobered up by that loss Sabalenka gave it her all in the final set and it worked. She took an early 3-1 lead before adding another on top of that to make it 5-1. After that, it was a routine finish for Sabalenka who got more than she wanted out of her 1st match back since getting COVID. A strong 7-6(2) 4-6 6-1 win for the world number 2.