Top seed Sabalenka makes a winning start in Charleston

Aryna Sabalenka made a winning start in Charleston by taking down native player Alison Riske in a well-contested match 7-6(3) 6-4.

The Belarussian player is not enjoying a very good season so far but the shift to clay might be very good for her. After all, she can play well on the surface especially if she can unload her strong baseline play. Charleston is a nice transition from the slow courts of the Sunshine Double to a faster clay court before the Tour shifts to the slow courts of Europe.

She faced Alison Riske, a player who can play well on clay and has played rather well in the past few weeks. The Belarussian played well on her own serve while also attacking her opponent quite early in rallies. She put a lot of pressure on Riske and eventually she got a 5-3 lead. Riske battled back to make it 5-5 with the first set ending after the tiebreak.

It was a well-contested tiebreak but Sabalenka was simply better emerging on top 7-3. The 2nd set opened well for both with neither being able to find a breakthrough. Eventually, Sabalenka took control of the match with her strong baseline game which was very hard on Riske. She was up 5-2 serving for the match but somewhat typically she complicated things by getting broken.

Sabalenka then had to save several break points at 5-4 to finally finish off the match.