Sabalenka overcomes Kasatkina to progress at Roland Garros

PARIS: World number one Aryna Sabalenka continued her impressive French Open campaign on Saturday, defeating Australia’s Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 to book her place in the fourth round at Roland Garros.

The top seed delivered a commanding performance on Court Suzanne Lenglen, restoring a sense of order to the women’s draw after a series of major upsets over the previous two days in Paris.

With top seed Jannik Sinner and 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic having exited the tournament in the last 48 hours, Sabalenka ensured there would be no such surprise in her third-round encounter.

The Belarusian wasted little time asserting her dominance, racing through the opening set without dropping a game.

Combining powerful baseline hitting with sharp net play, Sabalenka won the first five games before recovering from 15-40 down in the sixth game to complete a flawless 6-0 set.

Kasatkina, who was born in Russia and began representing Australia last year, showed greater resistance in the second set.

She broke serve and consolidated the advantage against the run of play, drawing loud chants of “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie” from the crowd.

However, Sabalenka quickly regained control as an unforced error from Kasatkina allowed the world number one to level the set at 2-2.

The four-time Grand Slam champion maintained her intensity throughout the remainder of the contest and raised her level in the closing stages to secure victory in straight sets.

The win marked Sabalenka’s eighth triumph in 10 career meetings against Kasatkina and earned her a highly anticipated fourth-round clash with Japan’s Naomi Osaka.

Sabalenka will now be looking to continue her pursuit of a maiden French Open title as she advances to the last 16 of the clay-court Grand Slam.