Aryna Sabalenka blasts past Jasmine Paolini to start WTA Finals in Riyadh with bang

Belarusian world No 1 smashes 11 aces on way to straight-sets win over Italian in opening match

It took Aryna Sabalenka 70 minutes to beat Jasmine Paolini at the King Saud University Indoor Arena. Getty Images

Aryna Sabalenka kicked off her quest for a maiden WTA Finals title by blasting 11 aces on her way to a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Jasmine Paolini in Riyadh on Sunday.

The world No 1 was at her serving best, landing a remarkable 81 per cent of her first serves in during the 70-minute contest to shoot to the summit of the Stefanie Graf Group.

It was Sabalenka's 60th win of the season. She trails only Iga Swiatek on the WTA leaderboard for matches won in 2025.

The 27-year-old Belarusian was handed the year-end world No 1 trophy in a special ceremony in Riyadh on Saturday.

"That felt super special, of course I'm super happy and super proud of the work that has been done and that things are working and I'm getting better and better every day," said the four-time Grand Slam champion.

"I just hope we'll keep doing what we're doing and hopefully we can stay there."

Sabalenka jumped to 3-0 lead and, despite briefly losing her break advantage, scooped the opening set in just 36 minutes.

She swatted away a pair of break points to hold on to her early lead in the second frame and cruised to the finish line, as Paolini, who is playing singles and doubles this week in Riyadh, ran out of steam.

"She's a tough opponent, we played a lot and every time it's a tough battle, doesn't matter what the score is, I always have to stay focused," said Sabalenka of the eighth-seeded Italian.

"I'm mostly happy with my focus today. I was calm and it felt like everything was in control."

In the same group, Jessica Pegula beat defending champion Coco Gauff 6-3, 6-7, 6-2 in an all-American matchup.

Gauff again struggled with her serve, hitting 12 double-faults — including one to hand the first set to Pegula, her former doubles partner.

Before she ultimately pulled it out in the tiebreaker, Gauff twice failed to serve out the second set.

On her second such chance, she hit three consecutive double-faults to let Pegula break her again and force a tiebreaker.

Three weeks ago, Gauff beat Pegula in the final of the Wuhan Open in China.

“Coco is a great champion, great competitor, good friend. So it’s always tough playing her,” Pegula said. “I don’t think there’s any secrets with this group of girls here.”

Meanwhile, Mirra Andreeva, who lost her doubles opener alongside Diana Shnaider, said her mysterious absence from the Tokyo Open was a misjudgement. If she had played she could have secured the eighth and final singles spot in Riyadh this week.

Andreeva was leapfrogged by Elena Rybakina at the last hurdle in the Race to Riyadh. She missed out despite winning a pair of 1000-level tournaments and reaching two Grand Slam quarter-finals this campaign.

Rybakina came from behind in the standings late in the season, winning Ningbo and reaching the Tokyo semi-finals to punch her ticket to Riyadh.

"We just had a talk with our team and we decided to skip the tournament," the 18-year-old Andreeva told AFP on Sunday.

"In the end, it turned out to be a wrong decision,"

"I guess with experience we're just learning. This is just my, not even a second full year on the WTA Tour, so I think we're just going to learn from this, we're going to get more experience from this and next time we're not going to make that mistake again."