Sabalenka claims 100th win as world number one
Aryna Sabalenka beat Daria Kasatkina in the Roland Garros third round, with Naomi Osaka waiting in the last 16.
- Aryna Sabalenka beat Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 in the Roland Garros third round.
- It was her 100th career win as the world number one.
- Naomi Osaka, also a four-time Grand Slam champion, awaits in the last 16.
- In the men's draw, with Sinner out and Alcaraz absent, a new champion will be crowned.
The first set lasted about as long as a proper warm-up routine. The clay on the show court had barely been scuffed up before Daria Kasatkina was looking at a scoreboard that read 6-0. That is how matches start when the world number one wants them over before they have begun.
In the Roland Garros third round, Aryna Sabalenka beat Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5 and ticked off a tidy number. It was her 100th career win since she took her seat at the top of the WTA rankings. The second set was tighter, with the Russian fighting her way back and forcing the favourite to play to the last game, but the ending was the same.
A statistic worth remembering
A hundred wins as the world number one is not a tally many players pile up. It is a figure built over weeks and months at the summit, through matches where you are always the target and every opponent saves her best tennis for you. Sabalenka rounded off that number in Paris, on a surface that has historically not been her favourite.
The first set told the whole story of her form. Six games without dropping one, no real resistance, with the serve clicking and the forehand hunting the angles. The second set showed something else: when she eases off, Sabalenka can drift into trouble. Kasatkina pounced, took the fight to her, but at 5-5 the favourite gripped the racquet again and closed it out.
What comes next in the last 16?
In the last 16 she meets Naomi Osaka, a player with four Grand Slam titles in the cabinet. Osaka reached the Sabalenka tie after a gruelling three-set battle with Iva Jovic, which she won 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. It is a clash of two champions who know how to lift a trophy, and a match that would headline an evening session at any tournament.
In the top half of the draw, Iga Swiatek came through an all-Polish meeting with Magda Linette, opening that path towards the later rounds. The men’s story is different: with Jannik Sinner out and Carlos Alcaraz absent, Paris will crown a new Grand Slam champion this year.
Can Sabalenka get past Osaka and take the one trophy she is still missing?
