French Open 2024: Aryna Sabalenka shrugs off shaky start to demolish Paula Badosa

Good pals Aryna Sabalenka (Rank.2) and Paula Badosa (Rank.139) faced off against each other in Round 3 of the 2024 French Open in Roland Garros. The duo, went into the match with a 4:2 head-to-head record in favour of Sabalenka, with 3 of the six earlier encounters on clay court, all of which the World No.2 won. On Saturday, June 1, Sabalenka made that 5: 2, obliterating Badosa 7-5 6-1 and advancing to Round 4.

French Open 2024 – When and where to watch clay court grand slam tournament; provisional schedule of matches 

The No.2 Sabalenka got an early break when her opponent Paula Badosa could not hold her serve right at the start of the match. But then Badosa broke right back. This kept happening for a while, and Sabalenka seemed a tad out of sorts; her serve was not on point and she made other errors too, allowing Badosa to take the lead to 4-2. Sabalenka then managed to close the gap to 4-5 and regained focus to then steer herself to take the first set 7-5.

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The second set went a lot better for the World No.2, racing to a 4-0 lead in only 13 minutes. But then, down 1-5, on her serve, Badosa staved off three of Sabalenka’s match points, but the fourth went in favour of the latter. She will now meet the winner of the Madison Keys vs Emma Navarro match in the round of 16.

French Open 2024: Women’s singles Round of 16 order of play, live streaming 

In the women’s singles draw, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Clara Tauson, Olga Danilovic, Elisabetta Cocciaretto, Marketa Vondrousova, Elena Rybakina and Varvara Gracheva have advanced to Round 4, which will play out on June 2. Currently matches scheduled in the outside courts remain affected by rain; Qinwen Zheng and Elina Avanesyan were early in the decider set when play was suspended owing to inclement weather. At least two other Round 3 matches are scheduled for Court 6 & 14, and it remains to be seen if they will be held as per schedule.