{"id":111993,"date":"2026-06-19T09:31:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:31:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/111993\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T09:31:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:31:37","slug":"sabalenka-eases-past-alexandrova-to-make-strong-start-in-berlin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/111993\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka eases past Alexandrova to make strong start in Berlin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aryna Sabalenka made a winning start to her grass-court swing, with a comfortable straight-sets win over Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach the Berlin Open quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Having seen her French Open campaign end in the quarter-final, Sabalenka bounced back with a 6-4 6-4 victory in 82 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Alexandrova had to fend off two break points in the opening game and match Sabalenka well in the opening stages, but the world number one soon gained control.<\/p>\n<p>A three-game winning streak, in which she did not drop a point, saw Sabalenka take the first set, while another break got her off the mark in the second.<\/p>\n<p>Alexandrova hit straight back to get on level terms once more, but Sabalenka reeled off three straight games again as she regained her rhythm.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian held off the inevitable, defending two break and match points to claw back to 5-4, but Sabalenka clinched the match with a love-hold to reach the next round.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Taking care of business <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SabalenkaA?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">@SabalenkaA<\/a> stay cool, calm, and collected to defeat Alexandrova in straights 6-4, 6-4.<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/BTO26?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#BTO26<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Rxil7fz6Ql\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/Rxil7fz6Ql<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 wta (@WTA) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WTA\/status\/2067291870128951746?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 17, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka looking to end grass-court struggles<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenka is known for her hard-court prowess, with both of her major titles coming on the surface, but she is looking to improve on the other two.<\/p>\n<p>After a shock defeat to Diana Shnaider in the Roland-Garros quarters, Sabalenka is looking to shake off that disappointment with a strong run at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n<p>However, she has only ever made it through to two grass-court finals &#8211; at Eastbourne and Rosmalen &#8211; but has lost both of them, with the most recent coming back in 2022.<\/p>\n<p>She lost the latter of those to Alexandrova in straight sets, but with this victory, the Belarusian has improved her record against the Russian to 5-4.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aryna Sabalenka made a winning start to her grass-court swing, with a comfortable straight-sets win over Ekaterina Alexandrova&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[99],"tags":[112,190,8878,2807,56251,56250],"class_list":["post-111993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-germany","tag-social","tag-sport","tag-sporty","tag-sportytv"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116776080932123430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}