Sabalenka serves 18 double faults in shock defeat to Juvan

A less than impressive start to the year for the world No 2

January 2, 2022, ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA: Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus during practice ahead of the 2022 Adelaide International WTA 500 tennis tournament || 216746_0032 2022 ADELAIDE Australia international PRESS sport tennis WTA zagency zlast24 zselect ZSPORT ZTENNIS Zuma ZUMAPRESS.com zwire

Carrie Dunn

January 5, 2022

World No 2 Aryna Sabalenka racked up 18 double faults in a shock second-round defeat at the Adelaide International to Kaja Juvan 7-6(6), 6-1.

Eleven of those double faults came in the second set as the Belarusian won just seven per cent of her points on second serve.

“I really enjoyed the fight in the first set,” Juvan said afterwards. “I think she played really great. She made a few mistakes, but in general she didn’t give me too much.

“Then the second set was a little bit different. She was struggling with the serve. In my head I was just thinking, Okay, keep your level and stay focused and don’t sort of lose your mind in the whole situation.”

The tournament’s third seed Maria Sakkari also crashed out, losing in three sets to the USA’s Shelby Rogers, 7-6(5), 2-6, 6-4.

Rogers also defeated the Greek last year to reach the third round of Wimbledon.

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