Aryna Sabalenka plays like a boss against Jasmine Paolini at the WTA Finals

Aryna Sabalenka is currently the top-ranked player on the WTA tour. She also was last year ahead of the WTA Finals. In 2023, though, Iga Swiatek was out to prove she was the alpha in women's tennis, even dressing completely differently at the photo shoot before the event began, and she swept away the field. 2024 might belong to Sabalenka, though.

She has won two Grand Slams this year (the Australian Open and the US Open) and been consistent enough to overtake Swiatek for No. 1. She was helped, of course, but Swiatek missing a couple of important tournaments late in the season, but that was the Pole's choice. Sabalenka did what she needed to do to rank at the top.

That continued on Monday at the WTA Finals. In her first match of the round-robin stage, Sabalenka dispatched a red hot Zheng Qinwen in straight sets on Saturday. In her second match against Jasmine Paolini, having her best season on the tour, the Belarusian won the first set easily 6-3 and was able to get a late break in the second set to win 7-5.

Aryna Sabalenka claims her semifnals spot at the WTA Finals

Sabalenka's power simply overwhelmed the spunky Italian. The top-ranked player also made fewer mistakes while taking more chances. She could have done a better job with her serve - Sabalenka had six double faults - but her forehand was tough to deal with. She finished with 17 winners to Paolini's 11, but only had one more unforced error than the Italian.

To win the WTA Finals, Sabalenka will need to clean her serve up, but she was fine in her first match, so the match against Paolini might be more of an outlier. She knew her power from both wings would give Paolini issues, so she might have felt less pressure to be perfect with her serve. That will be different against a player such as Swiatek.

Sabalenka is assured of reaching the semifinals at the WTA Finals. She could lose her next match and be fine. Her goal is to win the event. The way she is playing, she has as good of chance as anyone.

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