Tennis: Aryna Sabalenka Knocks out Ashleigh Barty in Opening Match of WTA Elite Trophy, China

The hard hitting Aryna Sabalenka was too aggressive for Ashleigh Barty in the opening singles clash of the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, China. Soon after the famous tennis championship started, Sabalenka marked her presence in the winning bout by taking the match away from Barty by 6-4, 6-4.

Sabalenka is just 20 years old from Belarus (Part of Europe) made the most of the match by defeating Ashleigh Barty a 22 year old from Australia, in the opening game of the tournament, with an agility to struck down in the opening set by 6-4. Aryna Sabalenka is known to be the youngest player of this tournament seems to make most of it. These is seen a gradual improvement in her ranking at the world level showing the form that has seen her shoot up from the 39th to the 12th place in just a short span of three months. Sabalenka is one of the youngest competitors in the past four years history of this tournament. Barty ranked at no.9 was seen with not much to do in the opening game. Sabalenka from the very inception of the match seemed to have a clear mindset, came up to be starting the match which her attacking nature knocked Barty with strong aggression from the baseline and following balls into the net to close down points. She was initially rewarded in the first few, making an early lead of 2-0 with a clear intention at her first game. She didn’t let the Australian to recover from her early misstep and that early breakthrough made the difference look deeper in the opening set as Sabalenka closed it out with a strong hold to mention a win. It was a 20th consecutive match for Sabalenka as she has built up a well-deserved reputation for going the distance, winning 21 three-set matches this year which is more than anyone playing in this tournament. After losing the match to Sabalenka, Barty told reporters that "I'm disappointed not to come away with the win, but I'll have another opportunity in the next few days to try and finish my season on a real high." As of now in its fourth year the WTA Elite Trophy it is featuring 12 players ranked roughly from nine to 20 in the latest graph. This year's total prize money is USD $2.35 million (2.07 million euro) across the singles and doubles tournaments to be played in this tour. Sabalenka is next to face the world number 18^th ranker Caroline Garcia from France, who is yet another aggressive player.

By: Anuja Arora

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