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World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus defeated No. 4 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy 6-3, 7-5 on Monday to improve to 2-0 at the WTA Finals Riyadh and guarantee herself a spot in the semifinals in Saudi Arabia.

Sabalenka opened the tournament Saturday with a straight-sets victory over China’s Qinwen Zheng in the Purple Group. Zheng, the No. 7 seed, bounced back Monday by beating No. 5 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-1.

Sabalenka can not only guarantee the top semifinal seed out of the Purple Group if she beats Rybakina on Wednesday, she would also lock up the year-end World No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career.

The 26-year-old won the Australian Open and U.S. Open this year and is vying for her first career WTA Finals title.

Sabalenka raced out to a 4-0 lead against Paolini and needed just 36 minutes to wrap up the first set. She fell into a 2-0 hole in the second set when Paolini broke her serve in the second game, but Sabalenka ripped off four games in a row. Paolini pushed ahead one more time and led 5-4 when Sabalenka won the final three games to finish the job in 90 minutes.

By the end of the match, she out-aced Paolini 5-0 and prevailed despite committing more unforced errors (19) than winners (17).

Zheng, meanwhile, won 39 of 49 (80 percent) of her first-serve points and hit 25 winners on her way to defeating Rybakina in a close match.

Zheng lamented that it took her three sets to finish the job after winning a break point early in the first and second sets.

“I was the one to make the first break, and then I let her back in the first,” Zheng said. “Then it happened again in second. But in the third set I talked to myself. I broke her first and I stayed focused. Finally in the third set I start to play my tennis again.”

Rybakina put up a fight, hitting eight aces with just one double fault and saving 9 of 13 break points. But she has been eliminated from contention for the knockout round.

–Field Level Media