TORONTO — The world No. 1 is off and running on her preferred surface at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.
Aryna Sabalenka took care of qualifier Moyuka Uchijima in straight sets (6-3, 6-3) to kick off her NBO in the Round of 64 on Tuesday night at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto. It wasn’t all smooth sailing for the 28-year-old, who was playing her first match since a disappointing Round of 16 loss to Naomi Osaka at Wimbledon on July 5. But Sabalenka did more than enough to dismiss her Japanese opponent.
“I’m happy with the performance,” she said. “I’m happy with the fight. I knew that going into this match I might struggle a little bit after a little break, but I was ready for that. I’m happy that mentally and physically I was ready to go.”
Despite feeling sharp, Sabalenka certainly didn’t have the start she wanted. Uchijima broke her intimidating opponent in the first game, then easily held serve in the second to jump out to a quick 2-0 first-set lead. However, when Sabalenka found her groove, she really got rolling, winning five consecutive games to seize control of the opening set.
Sabalenka, of course, is a hard-court queen, having claimed all four of her major victories (two Australian and US Open titles apiece) on the surface. She was clearly happy to be back on the hard court in Toronto, even if Sobeys Stadium was a little gusty.
“For me it’s a great practice,” she said of the conditions. “I need to recover after longer rallies. I need to work on those tricky positions just so in the bigger matches I can perform at my best. I’m happy to have tricky conditions. It was a bit windy, it was a bit bouncy, kind of like tricky bounces sometimes, so I really enjoy that.”
The second set began in odd fashion with the first five games ending in a break of service. First, it was Sabalenka breaking Uchijima, but she failed to hold serve herself in both the second and fourth games as her scrappy opponent fought back.
To be sure, there were some inconsistencies in Sabalenka’s service game, as she scuffled through six double-faults. Still, she managed to win 74 per cent of her first-serve points and, leading 3-2 in the second set, she held serve in the fifth game to go up 4-2. While Uchijima was able to hold herself and close the gap to 4-3, Sabalenka took control after that. On match point, she punctuated her victory with a big overhead smash, breaking Uchijima one final time to close out the duel.
The last point may have been a banger, but Sabalenka — renowned for her power game — acknowledged she’s been working a bit on finesse, using some dropshots and working in a serve-and-volley approach here and there.
“We do it a lot in practice,” she said of the softer approach. “To be honest, right now my focus is to be back to basics and just stay simple. I just felt it today, and I trusted myself and I went for it. We do it a lot in practice so like whenever I feel it on court I can produce it.”
She’ll be looking to do the same in her next match, which comes on Thursday versus veteran Chinese player Shuai Zhang.
For a little while, it appeared as though Canadian wild card Katherine Sebov might stand a chance to keep going in the tournament, too, as she scrapped it out earlier in the day with 10th-ranked Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine. The 27-year-old Sebov — who earned a two-set victory over Japan’s Aoi Ito on Sunday — jumped out to a 4-1 first-set lead, but ultimately lost that set 7-6 in a tiebreaker. She never recovered after that and wound up dropping the second set without taking a game from Kostyuk.
In addition to Kostyuk and Sabalenka gaining victories on Tuesday, four-time French Open champion Iga Swiatek of Poland got her NBO rolling with a 6-0, 6-3 straight-sets win over Czechia’s Sara Bejlek. “It was a good match, and a good start of the hard-court season,” said Swiatek, the 2025 Wimbledon champ. “I’m happy with the level. The first set I was playing with a lot of confidence and very straightforward, so for sure a good one. Then, in second, parts of that were kind of the same as first. But there were for sure a few tricky games, especially the long one (which went 32 points before Swiatek held to go up 4-2). I haven’t played a game like that in some time, so I’m happy that I won it and I was solid at the end, so for sure a good match.”
Swiatek, Sabalenka and Kostyuk can all say that of their opening NBO showings, as the stars reminded everyone just how overpowering they can be.
