By Chris Oddo | Saturday January 5, 2018
Aryna Sabalenka won her first title of 2019 and her third overall, defeating Alison Riske, 4-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 at the Shenzhen Open on Saturday.
Both Sabalenka and Riske played double duty due to a lost day due to rain earlier in the week. Sabelenka defeated Wang Yafan 6-2, 6-1 in her semifinal earlier in the day while Riske knocked off Vera Zvonareva, 6-0, 1-0 RET.
Riske played a fantastic match against Sabalenka and made serious inroads with her backhand. She even rallied from 5-2 down in the second set and forced a tiebreaker, but she could not keep the hard-hitting Belarusian at bay.
Sabalenka slowly took control of the match in the third set as she built her lead and broke serve three times on seven opportunities.
"To start the season with a title, it gives you more belief in yourself, and hopefully I can do well at the Australian Open," Sabalenka said. "If I need to play two matches in one day, I'm going to do that.”
Sabalenka improved to 2-0 in three-setters this season—she went 22-11 in deciders in her breakout 2018 season.