By Pritha Sarkar
LONDON (Reuters) – Aryna Sabalenka was back on her A-game on Saturday as she kept up her perfect record against Russian Anna Blinkova with a 6-2 6-3 victory in the third round of Wimbledon.
A day after the Belarusian was left screaming in frustration as little-known Varvara Gracheva threatened to trample her Wimbledon dream, the Australian Open champion was back to her sublime ball-striking best as she extended her record over Blinkova to 3-0.
In a match between two players who were both barred from competing at the All England Club last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Sabalenka made her experience count against an opponent who has never reached the fourth round of a major.
She broke Blinkova three times to take the first set and when she pinned back the Russian with some thunderous returns to take a 4-2 lead in the second, the world number 40 was left shaking her head in resignation.
If Sabalenka thought Blinkova was holding up the white flag, she was sorely mistaken because in the very next game Blinkova gave the second seed the run around for over 14 minutes.
In a nerve-shredding game featuring eight deuces, four break points for Blinkova, aces and double faults, Sabalenka hung tough despite all the drama to emerge unscathed for a 5-2 lead.
Two games later a searing ace sealed victory and a clash with another Russian, 21st seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
(Reporting by Pritha Sarkar, editing by Martyn Herman)
