By Shrivathsa Sridhar
PARIS, May 30 (Reuters) – Aryna Sabalenka cut through the French Open chaos as the world number one beat Australia’s Daria Kasatkina 6-0 7-5 on Saturday to seal her place in the fourth round after seismic upsets in the previous two days at Roland Garros.
With top seed Jannik Sinner and 24-times Grand Slam winner Novak Djokovic exiting in the last 48 hours, Sabalenka restored order with a commanding display to book a tantalising meeting with Japan’s Naomi Osaka.
“It has definitely been a great week,” Sabalenka said during her on-court interview.
“I’m happy to be through to the second week, happy with my level, and to be able to handle the fight that she brought and get a straight-sets win.
“Thank you (to the crowd). Honestly, that’s just a dream to play in front of you all and feel the support.”
The 28-year-old was reminded that it was her 100th victory as the world number one, making her the ninth player to achieve the feat since the inception of the WTA rankings.
Sabalenka joins Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Justine Henin and Iga Swiatek in the honours list.
“I’ve got goosebumps,” said Sabalenka, who struggled with dips in her form and crippling service issues a few years ago.
“It means the world to me and I’m just happy that in the tough moments I stayed tough. I was fighting and never gave up and that is what it has brought me.
“I’m super proud of myself and my team. We’ve reached an amazing level that felt impossible.”
Sabalenka wasted little time to get going on a sun-drenched Court Suzanne Lenglen, winning the opening five games with a mix of power from the baseline and precision at the net, before she fought from 15-40 down in the next to secure a bagel.
Russian-born Kasatkina, who began representing her adopted country last year, broke and held against the run of play in the second set to draw chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” and those voices soon became a lot quieter.
An unforced error from Kasatkina allowed Sabalenka to draw level at 2-2, and the four-times Grand Slam champion stayed in touch before dialling up the intensity late on to complete her eighth victory in 10 meetings between the pair.
She will now take a 2-1 record to the meeting with fellow four-times major winner Osaka, eyeing a place in the quarter-finals as she chases her maiden title in Paris a year after finishing runner-up to Coco Gauff.
(Reporting by Shrivathsa Sridhar in Paris, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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