Berlin, Germany) – The top two seeds of the WTA 500 in Berlin made their debut with victory on the grass courts of the German capital. World No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Elena Rybakina won their matches on Tuesday. already the current champion Ons Jabeur was eliminated in the first round of the competition.

Sabalenka needed only 1:06 to beat Vera Zvonareva, a 38-year-old veteran from qualifying in Berlin, 6-3, 6-2. The second-placed shot five aces in the match and faced no break points. She managed just one break in the first set and two more in the following set, dropping just eight points from her service games in the game.

Sabalenka’s opponent in the Round of 16 could be Russian guest Veronika Kudermetova, ranked 13th, or 20-year-old Chinese Qinwen Zheng, ranked 25th. Both would be new opponents in the career of the 25-year-old Belarusian.

On the other side of the table, Kazakh Elena Rybakina scored 6/4 and 6/2 against Polina Kudermetova, 20, Veronika’s sister and 139th in the standings. Rybakina fired nine aces in the match and only faced one break point. Like Sabalenka, the Kazakh also had three breaks in the game. Her next rival will be Croatian Donna Vekic., 23rd in the standings. The current world number 3 won the only previous duel.

Niemeier, from the qualifications, overthrows the current champion
Already the current champion Ons Jabeur did not pass the first round of the competition. The Tunisian was overtaken by the qualified German Jule Niemeier, 120th in the standings, with partials of 7/6 (7-4) and 6/4. Niemeier saved two set points in the first round. Jabeur led the winners’ stats 19-12 but committed 24 errors to the German’s 19.

“It’s an amazing feeling. I’ve lost in three sets for the past two years. So when I won the first set, I tried to be positive. At least I knew I might have to play three again sets,” said Niemeier, who won for the first time in three editions at the WTA 500 in Berlin. “I was a little nervous at the close. Two days ago in qualifying I couldn’t serve for the game when I was 5/2, but I kept fighting. I tried to think one point at a time and she ended up missing it in the end.” .

The 23-year-old German, who reached the quarter-finals at Wimbledon last year, earned her third career top-10 win and second of the season. She had already beaten Anett Kontaveit at the London Grand Slam and Petra Kvitova on clay in Madrid earlier this year. Her next rival could be Canadian Bianca Andreescu or Czech leftist Marketa Vondrousova.