Aryna Sabalenka becomes first player into WTA Finals semifinals with victory over Paolini

Aryna Sabalenka continued her perfect start to her WTA Finals campaign on Monday night, defeating Jasmine Paolini, 6-3, 7-5, to improve to 2-0 in the purple round-robin group.

She had beaten Zheng Qinwen, 6-3, 6-4, in her first match.

And with Zheng beating the other member of the group—Elena Rybakina—earlier in the day, that means Sabalenka guarantees herself of finishing at the top of the purple group, making her the first player to qualify for the semifinals in Riyadh this year.

Paolini and Zheng will meet on Wednesday to determine second place, and thus the second qualifier. Rybakina is eliminated.

And there’s more.

Moving forward at the season-ending championships this week, if Sabalenka wins just one more match—or if Iga Swiatek loses a match—then Sabalenka will clinch the WTA’s year-end No. 1 ranking.

The only way Swiatek can become No. 1 now is by winning the title undefeated and for Sabalenka not to win any more matches.

Swiatek plays her next match on Wednesday against Coco Gauff.

Sabalenka plays her next match on Thursday against Rybakina.

It looked like a blow-out was brewing on Monday as Sabalenka stormed out to a 4-0, double-break lead right out of the gates—Paolini got one of the breaks back in the next game, and the two traded holds from there until Sabalenka clinched the first set.

But Paolini had found her groove by then, and she had all kinds of chances in the second set—not only did she jump out to an early 2-0 lead, but after Sabalenka won the next four games in a row for a 4-2 lead, she won three games in a row of her own to go up 5-4.

The Italian even held two set points in the next game with Sabalenka serving at 4-5, but the world No. 1 saved them both, held for 5-all, broke one last time for 6-5 and swiftly served the match out.

“I would say that overall the whole match was a tough match,” Sabalenka said afterwards in her on-court interview. “She’s such a great player, putting so much pressure, moving well, serving great—she’s a great player, and I’m super happy with this win tonight.

“The second set was quite tricky. Honestly, I don’t know, I was just trying to stay aggressive. I was going to fight for this set no matter what, and I’m really happy to close this match in straight sets.”

And aggressive she was—Sabalenka finished the match with more than twice as many winners as Paolini, 27 to 12.

Sabalenka’s victory over the No. 4-ranked Paolini was a milestone win, too: the landmark 40th Top 10 win of her career.