NEWCOMER to the WTA Finals event, Italian Jasmine Paolini showed she has no intention of making up the numbers, seeing off a somewhat rusty Elena Rybakina in straight sets overnight. The day one clash saw Paolini win 7-6 6-4 to get an early victory and give herself the best chance of reaching the coveted knockout stages of the tournament.

Rybakina has not played a match since the US Open, instead refreshing and looking to get back to her best tennis that saw her triumph at Wimbledon in 2022, and then reach the Australian Open final last year. Though 2024 has not been her best season, Rybakina has remained inside the Top 10 players, collecting eight career titles including three earlier this year.

Her start to the season was incredible, with the Kazakh winning in Brisbane and Abu Dhabi, before collecting a trophy at Stuttgart. She has fought off injury and illness that saw her pull out of the Tokyo Olympics and withdraw from a host of events and matches, but she looked a lot stronger overnight despite going down to Paolini.

The Italian has had a career-best year, winning in Dubai this year to carck through for just her second title, but also heading to Riyadh with a 37-17 record, going deep in most tournaments. She rose to fourth in the world in that time to be the second highest ranked player in her group.

In the win over Rybakina, the 28-year-old Italian took an earlier break to surge ahead at 4-2, before the Kazakh stormed back to force a tiebreaker. Paolini held her nerve there to win it 7-5, before controlling the second set with an important break and looking rock solid throughout that set to post a win in an hour and 45 minutes.

Paolini withstood eight aces off Rybakina’s racquet, to win 70 per cent of her first serve points and convert two of five break point chances. Both players were incredible on serve with just six points in the end being the difference between the two (81-75).

“I didn’t know what to expect too much, because she’s not playing since [US Open],” Paolini said post-match. “But I knew that here she’s going to serve very well. “So I was ready to fight, especially on my service game, trying to be every service game focused, and trying to be close in the score. “And I said to myself, when you have the occasion, you have to try to break her.”

Though still not at her best, Rybakina was still pleased she was able to compete after a long layoff, hitting 27 winners to 12 and producing some eye-catching plays.

“Today was a tough one,” Rybakina said. “I had some opportunities and chances in the first set, I had a lot of break points but didn’t convert them.

“Overall, I think it was a good one. From such a break, I think that was not so bad, the level of my game after just two and a half weeks of preparation. I’m looking forward to the next match and hopefully I can do better.”

Déjà vu for fans as Sabalenka accounts for Zheng

FOR the fourth time in 2024, Aryna Sabalenka got the better of improving Chinese star Qinwen Zheng. The Belarusian won her first two matches against the world number seven easily – both at Grand Slams – before being challenged last month in Wuhan. However at Riyadh overnight, Sabalenka was back to her brutal best with the world number one storming to a 6-3 6-4 victory.

In a battle of the baseliners, Sabalenka only served the three aces to Zheng’s eight, but her first serve percentage of 94 (31 of 33 points) made it near-impossible to get a look in off her serve. Zheng (23 of 28) went at 82 per cent, but again her serving percentage of just 51 hurt the seventh ranked talent. In the end, Sabalenka saved the only break point she faced, while converting two of four off Zheng’s serve.

“I’m super happy with the win, especially against Qinwen,” Sabalenka said post-match. “It’s always tough matches, tough battles against her, and I’m really, I’m really glad I was able to finish this match in straight sets.”

The Purple Group players will now get a day off for the Orange Group to step up, before Sabalenka takes on Rybakina, and Paolini meets Zheng. If both Sabalenka and Paolini win, they will have secured semi-final spots before the last round-robin matches. While not in action in the singles, Paolini will take to the court tonight with compatriot Sara Errani in the doubles, with the pair also fourth seeds in that event.

Today’s singles action sees world number two taking on Wimbledon champion and world number 13 Barbora Krejcikova tonight, before the all-American battle between Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula takes place after that.