WTA Finals: Paolini prevails over error-strewn Rybakina

Jasmine Paolini received a huge confidence booster via a win v world No 3 Elena Rybakina 7-6(5), 6-4 on Saturday at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, and will play Aryna Sabalenka in her next round-robin match.

The first set had an exchange of breaks at 3-2 and then in the very next game, before the Italian dominated the tiebreak early on, and closed it out 7-5.

In the second set, both had opportunities to break in their opponent’s first service game, however, it was Paolini who was more clinical, breaking at for 4-4, before clinching the win 6-4.

Overall, the statistics clearly point to where this match was lost by Rybakina. The world No 3 hit an inexplicable 56 unforced errors over the whole match, whereas her opponent hit just 22, even if she did hit more than double the amount of winners.

PURPLE GROUP RESULTS

Below are the standings in the Purple group, with the top two players advancing to the semi-finals:

• Aryna Sabalenka – 1 win/ 0 losses
• Jasmine Paolini – 1 win/ 0 losses
• Elena Rybakina – 0 wins/ 1 loss
• Zheng Qinwen – 0 wins/ 1 loss

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