Sabalenka too good for Vondrousova but Inglis run ended by Kanepi

Aryna Sabalenka threw her hands into the air, clapped them together and then punched the sky. “I’m really happy right now,” she said, “and mostly really happy that I made only 10 double-faults.”

She was laughing, the crowd was laughing and cheering. Marketa Vondrousova was probably doing neither, having lost the third-round showdown despite starting the stronger. The No 31 seed had taken the opening set, just as Sabalenka’s previous two Australian Open opponents had done. In much the same manner as those matches, the world No 2 had closed out the contest with ease.

“It feels like I’m warming up in the first set and then I start playing,” she said. “I really want to win it in two sets and that’s why I’m getting so much emotional on the first set, and that’s why I’m over-trying and I’m missing a lot.

“And after the first set when you’re losing, you’re: ‘OK, maybe I don’t have to overhit or panic like [I did] earlier.”

At Margaret Court Arena on Saturday she finished almost flawlessly, which will not be lost on the Estonian Kaia Kanepi, who will face her in the last 16 after beating theAustralian wildcard Maddison Inglis.

Vondrousova broke Sabalenka twice in the opening set. Sabalenka, though, started landing the big first serves for which she is also known. Vondrousova found herself on the back foot, forced to take more risks than desired and finding not enough were paying off.

These past few months Sabalenka has relied on other areas of her generally imposing game to compensate for her well-documented serving troubles, which peaked in round two when she served 19 double-faults against Wang Xinyu, including six in her opening service game. Her 10 against Vondrousova bring her tournament tally to 41.

She spent much off the