The WTA Finals kicked off its second day of group stage action in Riyadh with contrasting fortunes for the top seeds. World Number one Aryna Sabalenka opened her campaign in the Stefanie Graf Group with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Jasmine Paolini, registering her fifth straight victory over the world number eight. The US Open champion secured her 60th match win of the year, landing 11 aces and generating 24 winners.
Sabalenka, the 2022 runner-up in the tournament, broke Paolini early in the first set. Although the Italian managed to break back, reducing the lead to 4-3, Sabalenka immediately broke back and closed out the set with four consecutive aces. She then powered through the second set, winning six games in a row to close out the match in 70 minutes.
Sabalenka, who has never won the season-ending title, is taking it one match at a time: "I take this tournament as a regular tournament that I have to win five matches if I want to win the title."
In the second match of the group, defending champion and French Open champion Coco Gauff suffered a 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 6-2 loss to fellow American Jessica Pegula. Gauff's title defense started poorly due to persistent serving woes, recording 17 double faults and committing 75 unforced errors. She was broken nine times during the two-hour, 15-minute contest.
Despite showing mental toughness to force a deciding set after twice failing to serve out the second, Gauff could not overcome her execution struggles in the final set.
Pegula, the 2023 WTA Finals runner-up, settled quicker into the scrappy contest and executed a smarter game plan than she had in their recent Wuhan Open final defeat to Gauff. The World Number five, who secured her 52nd win this season, praised her opponent but pinpointed the key to her own success: "I knew what I had to do, and it was about keeping that balance between being aggressive and not overplaying.”
With Saturday's opening matches seeing wins for Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek in the Serena Williams Group, the round-robin format ensures the drama continues. Sabalenka's dominance puts her in pole position to advance, while Gauff will now face Paolini in a match she must win to keep her semifinal hopes alive. Pegula, who is playing the best tennis of her career, will challenge Sabalenka next, promising a high-stakes encounter on Tuesday.