Sabalenka passes Alexandrova test in US Open third round

Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the second seed, moved into the last 16 of the US Open by beating Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 29 seed, 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York.

Alexandrova troubled Sabalenka in the early stages of in the third round battle. She converted two break points to claim the first set as the Belarusian threw 14 unforced errors.

However, Sabalenka, the defending runner-up, returned to his aggressive best in the following set, creating five break point opportunities and cashing in on two to level the scores.

The world No 2 then played ruthless tennis in the decider and threatened a bagel. But Alexandrova produced her last bit of resistance to earn a break before losing the match in nearly 100 minutes.

Sabalenka notably didn’t have many words to describe her performance during the on-court interview:

“Honestly, I don’t know what I did. I was just trying to stay as low as possible, just trying to put as many balls as I can back on that side because she played incredible tennis in the first set and it was really tough to change that. I’m really happy that I was able to turn around this match to get this really difficult win.”

Sabalenka, ranked No 2, will face Belgian Elise Mertens, the No 33 seed, next.

Ahead of her victory, the Belarusian won against Australian qualifier Priscilla Hon (6-3, 6-3) and Italian Lucia Bronzetti (6-3, 6-1).

Alexandrova, ranked No 31, edged out Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova (6-7 (4), 6-0, 7-5) and American wildcard Iva Jovic (4-6, 6-4, 7-5) in the previous rounds.

New York (Grand Slam), other third-round results (USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, hard, USD 75.000.000, most recent results first):

• Beatriz Haddad Maia vs. Anna Kalinskaya
• Iga Swiatek vs. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova
• Jessika Ponchet vs. Caroline Wozniacki
• Ashlyn Krueger vs. Liudmila Samsonova
• Sara Errani vs. Diana Shnaider
• Jessica Bouzas Maneiro vs. Jessica Pegula
• Yulia Putintseva vs. Jasmine Paolini
• Karolina Muchova vs. Anastasia Potapova
• Elise Mertens beat Madison Keys (14): 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4
• Donna Vekic (24) beat Peyton Stearns: 7-5, 6-4
• Emma Navarro (13) beat Marta Kostyuk (19): 6-4, 4-6, 6-3
• Yafan Wang beat Victoria Azarenka (20): 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
• Coco Gauff (3) beat Elina Svitolina (27): 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
• Qinwen Zheng (7) beat Jule Niemeier: 6-2, 6-1
• Paula Badosa (26) beat Elena-Gabriela Ruse (Q): 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8)

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