Aryna Sabalenka’s service struggles continued but she still had enough to defeat Marketa Vondrousova
“It feels like I’m warming up in the first set and then I start playing,” she said. “I really want to win it in two sets and that’s why I’m getting so much emotional on the first set, and that’s why I’m over-trying and I’m missing a lot.
Vondrousova broke Sabalenka twice in the opening set. Sabalenka, though, started landing the big first serves for which she is also known. Vondrousova found herself on the back foot, forced to take more risks than desired and finding not enough were paying off. “It’s more mental,” she said. “Because I put a lot of pressure on myself about my serve and the last matches I was trying to control everything on my serve; my legs, my arm, the ball toss. I was overthinking, so I just stopped thinking.
It followed the day’s trend of comebacks in the women’s singles, with American Danielle Collins prevailing 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 after also losing the first set to emerging Danish star Clara Tauson, and the French veteran Alizé Cornet seeing off Slovenia’s Tamara Zidansek 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 – but not without a tense exchange with the umpire.