It was a solid start for Sabalenka in her bid to bounce back after falling in the quarter-finals at Roland Garros and in the round of 16 at Wimbledon.
The Belarusian star has dominated on hard courts this year and on Tuesday notched her 24th win in 25 matches on the surface. The lone defeat was her loss to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final.
Now she’s eyeing a North American hard court run that could include a three-peat at the US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year that starts on August 30 in New York.
“I’m happy with the performance, I’m happy with the fight,” Sabalenka said after her second-round opener. “I knew going into this match I might struggle a little bit after a little break, but I was ready for that.
“I’m happy that mentally and physically I was ready to go.“
Sabalenka didn’t have it all her own way against the 111th-ranked Uchijima. But she emerged from an exchange of five breaks of serve that opened the second set with a 3-2 lead and made the advantage stand up.
She held for 4-2, and when she had her first chance to serve it out she pounced, sealing the match on her second match point with an overhead winner.
Uchijima had surprised the Belarusian in the opening game of the match, clawing back from 40-15 down to break on the way to a quick 2-0 lead.
But Sabalenka won the next five games and polished off the opening set with a confident hold of serve.
In the third round she’ll face China’s Zhang Shuai, who was leading Jelena Ostapenko 6-0, 4-0 when the Latvian retired from their match.
Former world number one Iga Swiatek survived some nervy moments to launch her US Open build-up with a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Sara Bejlek in her second-round opener at the Toronto WTA 1000 on Tuesday.
Pretty physical
In her first match since her Wimbledon title defense ended with a third-round exit, Poland’s Swiatek was rolling through the first nine games, appearing in total control with a double-break for a 3-0 lead in the second.
But her Czech opponent dug in, using off-speed balls and some well-judged volleys to disrupt Swiatek’s rhythm, winning two straight games before Swiatek pulled off a great escape – fending off nine break points in a 22-minute sixth game to hold serve for a 4-2 lead.
“It was quite a weird game I’ve got to say,” Swiatek gold Tennis Channel. “Not easy to finish it. There was much more running, much more different change of rhythm and different solutions that we used during that game.
“I felt like we both were kind of changing the rhythm and the pace all the time, so sometimes it was hard to adjust to it.
“I’m happy that I stayed in the game and stayed solid because I felt at the end it got pretty physical.”
Swiatek has slipped from third in the world at this time last year to her current eighth.
Her Wimbledon disappointment came just four weeks after the four-time French Open champion bowed out in the last 16 at Roland Garros.
In fact, Swiatek has yet to reach a Tour-level final this season and is hoping a late surge over the North American hard court campaign capped by the US Open will prevent her from finishing the calendar year without a title for the first time since 2020 – the year she won the first of her six Grand Slam titles at Roland Garros.
She took some of the extra time after Wimbledon to work on technical aspects of her game, saying she’s been working on her rhythm and not rushing on the court.
“I feel like for sure in practices I already have these new habits in me. Sometimes during the match you’ve just got to focus even more to not let these old patterns come back.”
She’ll continue her quest to change that when she takes on Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic, a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 winner over Croatian Donna Vekic.
Eighth-seeded American Amanda Anisimova reached the third round by walkover when scheduled opponent Lanlana Tararudee of Thailand withdrew because of illness.
Ninth-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina rallied from a set and a break down to beat Spain’s Jessica Bouzas Maneiro 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4.
And 10th-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, who reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, shook off a slow start to beat Canadian wild card Katherine Sebov 7-6 (4), 6-0.
Kostyuk, seeded 10th, was broken twice to trail 4-1 in the first set before rebounding.
“Obviously the first set wasn’t easy, but I’m happy to have that type of match coming back because (if) you kind of pull through difficult moments you know you can do it,” said Kostyuk, who next faces former Australian Open champion Madison Keys.
