Top-seed Sabalenka wins opening match at Wimbledon warm-up in Berlin

File Photo: Aryna Sabalenka celebrates through the French Open.
| Photo Credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images

Top-seed Aryna Sabalenka has received her opening match on the German Open, a conventional Berlin warm-up event for Wimbledon.

The world quantity two beat veteran Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 to make it by to the final 16 forward of subsequent month’s grand slam on the All England Club in London.

The reigning Australian Open winner, who has misplaced simply six matches this season, known as her 38-year-old opponent, who performed her first match on the Berlin event in 2003, a “legend.”

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“Probably one day I’ll also be a legend here, losing to someone here and you’ll remind me that I won my first match here when the girl was five years old,” Sabalenka stated on courtroom after the match.

Earlier on Tuesday, Elena Rybakina received her opening match in straight units as she warms up for her Wimbledon title defence in July.

The Kazakh world quantity three beat Polina Kudermetova 6-4, 6-2 to advance to the final 16.

After successful the primary recreation, Rybakina needed to wait three hours as a thunderstorm swept throughout the German capital earlier than play may resume.

An Australian Open finalist in January, the 24-year-old was one of many favourites for the French Open however pulled out early resulting from sickness.

The WTA event in Berlin, happening simply two weeks earlier than the beginning of Wimbledon, is a star-studded occasion, with 9 of the highest ten-ranked ladies on this planet taking part.