PARIS: Roland Garros 2025 didn’t get off to the brightest of starts weather-wise. The sky was overcast and a persistent drizzle was a damper. The mistral, blowing across the grounds, was stiff and sharp, forcing fans to layer-up.
The matches on Court Philippe Chatrier, the tiered show court of this sprawling venue, however, got off to a roar under the roof.
Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a crisp peppermint onepiece, with strategic cut-off at the back, put the spark in the schedule with a rapid-fire performance against Russian Kamilla Rakhimova.
Who's that IPL player?The Belarussian, who claimed 12 of the 13 games played in the first-round match, in a major where she is yet to make it past the semifinals, picked clay as the surface that forced her to work the hardest. The 27-year-old didn’t sweat in the 60-minute workout in which she slammed 30 winners, using the chalked lines for target practice.
China’s Qinwen Zheng, the eighth seed, who followed the world No.1 on court, shut out the tricky Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-3 in 83 minutes. Sabalenka, whose USP is her supreme ability to blow out opposition, noted that power alone couldn’t win her the day on red clay.
“Sometimes you have to build the point three or four times in one point, so you have to physically be ready, mentally be ready,” she said. “You have to have variety in the game to be able to compete on clay court. Physically and mentally, clay court makes me work really hard.”
Sabalenka, who made the semi-finals here two years ago, then last year lost in the quarterfinals when she was laid low by a stomach bug, leans on Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to build her core. “The Jiu-Jitsu (teaches you) to have control over your body,” she said. “We use a lot of exercises from JiuJitsu for the core when we do fitness, also for control over the body. My trainer brought a lot of stuff from Jiu-Jitsu to my training sessions.”
Sabalenka, who is coming into her second successive Grand Slam as the world No.1, said she enjoys the pressure of leading the pack.
“I take it as a challenge if someone is chasing me or that there is a target on my back,” she said. “Every time I go out there, I feel let’s go. Let’s see who is ready for the pressure moments. It helps me stay in the moment and to fight, no matter what.”
Get IPL 2025 match schedules, squads, points table, and live scores for CSK, MI, RCB, KKR, SRH, LSG, DC, GT, PBKS, and RR. Check the latest IPL Orange Cap and Purple Cap standings.
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