French Open: Sabalenka starts with an easy win; Oly champ Zheng Qinwen advances

Paris, May 26 (IANS) No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka opened her French Open campaign with a smooth 6-1, 6-0 win over Kamilla Rakhimova in exactly an hour to begin Sunday's play on Court Philippe-Chatrier on a proper note.

Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen of China also made a winning start, defeating former Roland Garros finalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in an early match in the women's singles first round.

Sabalenka arrived in Paris as the form player of 2025, seeking her first Roland Garros crown. The reigning US Open champion owns a tour-leading three titles this year, including her third Madrid trophy last month, and her overall record is now 35-6. On Sunday, Sabalenka fired 30 winners, including five aces, across the 13 games of the match -- while keeping her unforced error count down to 17. By contrast, Rakhimova was only able to find nine winners in total.

The World No.1 faced just two break points in the match, both in the fourth game of the second set, and saved both with clean winners. She converted five out of 11 opportunities on the Rakhimova serve. She will next face Jil Teichmann, who defeated qualifier Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4, 6-4. They have met once previously, with Sabalenka victorious over the Swiss player 6-2, 6-1 in the 2022 Doha third round.

Elsewhere, in Sabalenka's section of the draw, Viktorija Golubic took out former No. 2 Petra Kvitova 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 in 1 hour and 41 minutes. Kvitova was playing her first match at Roland Garros since 2023 and seeking her first win here since 2022, but was undone by a total of 45 unforced errors. Her record since returning from maternity leave in February now stands at 1-5.

In the other half of the draw, Zheng Qinwen defeated Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-3 in a first-round match. Zheng, the No. 7 seed, advanced to the second round at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year and extended her winning streak at the tournament to seven matches. She will next face either Alexandra Eala of the Philippines or Colombia's Emiliana Arango.

--IANS

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