Aryna Sabalenka, with a winning start to the tennis tournament in Madrid, will play against a 19-year-old American

Defending champion and second seed Aryna Sabalenka (Belarus) qualified for the third round of the UTA 1000 clay tennis tournament in the Spanish capital Madrid with a prize fund of 7.7 million euros.

In a meeting of the second round, Sabalenka overcame the Pole Magda Linet with 6:4, 3:6, 6:3 in two hours and 12 minutes. She struggled with her serve at times, but the two-time Australian Open winner recorded her 10th match point ace to seal the match.

Arina Sabalenka’s opponent in the dispute to reach the fourth round will be the 19-year-old American Robin Montgomery, who beat the British Katie Boettler after a turnaround with 1:6, 6:3, 6:4.

The fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan) dealt with Lucia Bronzetti from Italy 6:4, 6:3 and in the third round will face Mayar Sherif (Egypt), who earlier eliminated the 25th-ranked Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk with 6:2, 7:5.

Czech Marketa Vondroushova, seeded seventh, defeated American Shelby Rogers 6:1, 6:3. Her next opponent will be Mira Andreeva. The Russian defeated the 29th seeded Linda Noskova from the Czech Republic after a comeback with 4:6, 6:3, 6:3.

Ashlyn Kruger from the USA reached the third round after defeating the 14th-ranked Russian tennis player Ekaterina Alexandrova 6:3, 6:3 and will play against Sarah Beilek (Czech Republic), who defeated another Russian – the 24th-ranked Anna Kalinskaya by 6:1, 6:4.

France’s Caroline Garcia, the 21st seed, beat China’s Xinyu Wang 6:1, 6:4, and Russia’s 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova eliminated Australia’s Daria Saville, also 6:1, 6:4.

Tenth-seeded Daria Kasatkita (Russia), 12th-seeded Yasmine Paolini from Italy and 22nd-ranked Czech Barbora Krejcikova qualified for the third round.

Sixth seed Qinwen Zheng, who was forced to retire in her second round match against Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan at a score of 5:7, 0:2.