Sabalenka broke Kasatkina with a furious start and reached the Roland Garros round of 16
Aryna Sabalenka continued her assured path through the Paris Grand Slam and on the Roland Garros courts secured a place in the round of 16 after defeating Daria Kasatkina 6-0, 7-5. The match was played in Paris, on the clay surface of the Grand Slam tournament, and the official WTA draw lists it as a third-round encounter, after which the top seed moved into the last sixteen. Sabalenka opened the result almost ideally, without losing a game in the first set, and then in the second had to respond to significantly firmer resistance from the Australian player. According to the official WTA schedule, her next opponent will be Naomi Osaka, the sixteenth seed, which gives the round of 16 additional weight because two players of pronounced attacking power and great experience at the biggest tournaments are meeting.
First set without doubt
Sabalenka entered the match aggressively, took control of the rallies early and immediately put Kasatkina under pressure on serve. The first set ended 6-0, which best described the balance of power in the opening phase of the match: the Belarusian dictated the rhythm, shortened points quickly and did not allow her opponent to develop a game based on changes of height, spin and direction. According to the official WTA draw, Sabalenka also passed through the first two rounds in two sets, so against Kasatkina she continued her streak without losing a set in the singles part of the tournament. In the first round she defeated Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-4, 6-2, and in the second Elsa Jacquemot 7-5, 6-2, which shows that in Paris she has so far successfully handled different types of opponents.
Such an entry into the match was especially important because Kasatkina is a player who functions best when she gets time to construct points. Her game often relies on changing rhythm, tactical slices, moving the opponent across the width of the court and searching for a better angle before the finishing shot. Sabalenka left her no such space in the first set. By attacking the second shot after the serve and taking the middle of the court earlier, the top seed reduced the number of neutral exchanges, and with it the largest part of what Kasatkina usually uses to slow down opponents.
Kasatkina raised her level in the second set
The second set brought much more even tennis. According to an agency-service report published on CNA, Sabalenka had to withstand the fight that Kasatkina brought into the continuation of the match, and after the match she herself said she was pleased that she had found a way to finish the job in two sets. In the second set Kasatkina gained an early break advantage, thereby for the first time more seriously disrupting the rhythm of the top seed. BeIN Sports states in its report that Sabalenka recovered the lost service game in the fourth game, after which the set turned into a battle for every point and for every brief shift of initiative.
The most important moment of the second set happened at 5-5. Kasatkina, according to the same report, had 30-0 and an opportunity to create pressure for a possible third set, but Sabalenka played her firmest when it was most needed. She won eight of the last nine points and closed the match 7-5, thereby avoiding additional expenditure in a phase of the tournament in which the schedule grows more compressed ever faster. The finish showed the difference between the player who had dominated most of the encounter and an opponent who managed to find a way back into the match, but not a long enough continuity to reverse the course of the duel.
A place in the second week and an important statistical threshold
The victory over Kasatkina brought Sabalenka the second week of Roland Garros and the continuation of her pursuit of a first title in Paris. According to the CNA report, it was also her 100th victory as world number one, by which she joined the short list of players who have reached such a threshold since the introduction of the WTA rankings. In that company, according to the same source, are Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Serena Williams, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Justine Henin and Iga Swiatek. Such a figure does not directly change the outcome of the Paris tournament, but it confirms the continuity that Sabalenka is building at the top of women’s tennis and explains why her performances at Grand Slam tournaments are viewed through the prism of a fight for the title, and not just individual victories.
Roland Garros remains an especially important tournament for Sabalenka because a title in Paris is still missing from her career. BeIN Sports recalls that last year she was a finalist on the Paris clay, and this year’s entry into the round of 16 shows that she is once again in a position to attack the closing stages. On clay, where attacking tennis requires more patience and additional adjustment to longer rallies, Sabalenka is trying to combine the power of her shots with greater discipline in choosing the moment for risk. Against Kasatkina that combination was visible in the first set, while in the second she also had to show resilience after losing an early break.
Kasatkina ended her campaign after a good opening to the tournament
Daria Kasatkina arrived at the meeting with Sabalenka in Paris with two victories. According to the official WTA draw, in the first round she defeated Zeynep Sonmez 6-4, 6-4, and then in the second round she got past Susan Bandecchi 7-5, 7-6. The Australian tennis federation had previously reported that in that second match she had to go through a very demanding tie-break, in which she saved set points and won the duel after long resistance from the Swiss player. Such a path to the third round showed that Kasatkina is capable of playing long and tactically complex matches, but against Sabalenka she did not have enough time to impose such dynamics.
Kasatkina’s WTA profile states that her best result at Roland Garros is the semifinal from 2022, which confirms that the Paris clay is not a court on which she lacks experience or relevant results. In that context, the 6-0, 7-5 defeat cannot be reduced only to a one-sided image of the first set. In the continuation, Kasatkina found a better rhythm, began keeping the ball in play longer and forced Sabalenka to defend several times from more awkward positions. Still, the difference in finishing key points remained decisive, especially in the closing stages of the second set, when the top seed again accelerated the game and took control.
A duel with Naomi Osaka follows
In the round of 16 Sabalenka awaits Naomi Osaka, which is one of the most high-profile possible duels in that phase of the women’s tournament. The WTA announced that Osaka defeated Iva Jovic 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4 in the third round after almost three hours of play and reached the second week of Roland Garros for the first time in her career. The Japanese player, a four-time Grand Slam champion, had previously reached no further than the third round in Paris, so her place in this year’s round of 16 carries additional sporting weight. For Sabalenka, this means that after the tactically different Kasatkina she will get an opponent who also likes to shorten points, attack the serve and seek dominance with the first shots.
According to the WTA report, it will be the fourth head-to-head meeting between Sabalenka and Osaka. That context is especially interesting because their duel offers not only a fight for the quarterfinals, but also a clash of two tennis philosophies that overlap in some elements. Both players can dominate with the serve and the first shot after the serve, both have experience winning the biggest titles, but both on clay have to control risk differently than on a hard court. For that reason, the round of 16 will probably depend on who maintains the first-serve percentage better, who adapts more quickly to longer rallies and who has more patience in important games before the finishing attack.
The wider context of the women’s tournament in Paris
Sabalenka’s victory came in a phase of the tournament in which the draw is already beginning to take clearer shape, but also after days marked by surprises. According to reports from Roland Garros, the women’s part of the tournament has already brought important changes in expectations, and every assured victory by seeds gains additional value because it reduces the risk of an early exit in the unpredictable conditions of the clay surface. The WTA official tournament overview states that Roland Garros 2026 is played from May 24 to June 7, and entry into the round of 16 marks the transition from the opening phase into the part of the competition in which the differences among the players become ever smaller.
For Sabalenka this is especially important because as the top seed she also carries the burden of expectations. At Grand Slam tournaments such a status does not guarantee an easy path, but it shapes the way every one of her victories is interpreted. Against Kasatkina, in the first set she showed the level that corresponds to a title favorite, while in the second set she received a useful warning that even opponents who find themselves behind at the start will try to find a different plan. She finished the match without losing a set, but with enough competitive testing that entry into the second week is not only a result of routine, but also confirmation of her ability to adapt.
Control of rhythm as the key to victory
The biggest difference in the encounter was that Sabalenka more often decided when the point would accelerate and when it would enter a safer exchange. In the second set Kasatkina managed to extend several games and open more situations in which she could use her creativity, but the first set and the closing stretch of the match belonged to the player who imposed the basic pattern of play more powerfully. Such control of rhythm is especially important at Roland Garros because clay allows an additional defensive shot and punishes impatient attempts to finish points. Sabalenka, in the key moments, especially at 5-5 in the second set, found the balance between aggression and precision.
The 6-0, 7-5 victory therefore carries two messages at the same time. The first is that Sabalenka is capable, against a quality opponent, of opening a match so strongly that she directs it toward herself already in the early phase. The second is that the continuation of the tournament will not depend only on initial dominance, but also on how quickly she resolves periods in which opponents adapt to her rhythm. Against Kasatkina she passed that test in two sets. Against Osaka the test will be different, more direct and probably more strongly tied to the serve and the first shot after the return.
Sources:
- WTA – official Roland Garros 2026 draw, results by round and next pairings in the women’s singles tournament (link)
- WTA – report on Naomi Osaka’s victory and preview of her meeting with Sabalenka in the round of 16 (link)
- CNA / Reuters – report on Aryna Sabalenka’s victory over Daria Kasatkina and post-match statement (link)
- beIN Sports / Stats Perform – analysis of the course of the match, duration of the encounter and the closing stages of the second set (link)
- WTA – Daria Kasatkina profile and Grand Slam record (link)