Sabalenka Survives Linette Scare to Advance at Madrid Open

Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faced tough resistance in her opening match at the Madrid Open before beating Magda Linette 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday.The second-ranked Sabalenka struggled with her serve at times, but the two-time Australian Open winner struck her 10th ace on match point at the Caja Magica in Spains capital.Sabalenka got some help from the net to get a key break and go up 5-3 in the third set when Linette was unable to reach a shot by the Belarusian that clipped the top of the tape.Top-ranked Iga Swiatek won her opening match on Thursday.

Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faced tough resistance in her opening match at the Madrid Open before beating Magda Linette 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday.

The second-ranked Sabalenka struggled with her serve at times, but the two-time Australian Open winner struck her 10th ace on match point at the Caja Magica in Spain's capital.

Sabalenka got some help from the net to get a key break and go up 5-3 in the third set when Linette was unable to reach a shot by the Belarusian that clipped the top of the tape.

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek won her opening match on Thursday. Sabalenka beat Swiatek in last year's final in Madrid and also won here in 2021.

Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina beat Lucia Bronzetti 6-4, 6-3, while American Ashlyn Krueger downed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-3.

Mirra Andreeva, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Carolina Garcia, and Jasmine Paolini also advanced.

On the men's side, eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating Facundo Bagnis 6-1, 6-4. Rublev's last win came at Indian Wells in March.

Tommy Paul got past qualifier Lukas Klein 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4 in his first clay-court match of the season after missing Monte Carlo due to injury.

Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is set to open his title defence later on Friday against Alexander Shevchenko despite fitness concerns that had made him doubt he could play.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)