Aryna Sabaenka had zero interest in allowing Sonay Kartal to add another chapter to her dream Indian Wells run as the top seed crushed the world No. 83 with a 6-1 6-2 scoreline to safely progress into the quarterfinal in the desert.
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The Briton, who entered the Indian Wells main draw as a lucky loser and then won her opening three matches to make the round-of-16 in her WTA 1000 debut, broke the three-time Grand Slam champion in the very first game of their match.
Some may have gotten excited after Indian Wells sensation Kartal started the match in such a way but Sabalenka quickly poured cold water on that after responding by winning the next eight games to open a 6-1 2-0 lead. Up by a set and a break, the Belarusian earned another break in the fifth game before serving out for a dominant two-set win in the eighth game.
Next up for the world No. 1 will be the winner of the match between No. 6 seed Jasmine Paolini and 24th-seeded Liudmila Samsonova.
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Meanwhile, Kartal - who has never been ranked higher than No. 80 in the world - will reach a new career-high ranking on Monday and be ranked inside the top-65 for the first time in her career.
Sabalenka insisted there would not be issues against Kartal
Going into the match, the Belarusian tennis star admitted that she didn't know much about the Briton since they had never played before. Also, she was told by a reporter that the British tennis player grew up in an English city where conditions were pretty windy, like in Indian Wells this week.
However, Sabalenka kept it cool before the match and insisted she'd be fine.
"I think I never played her before, and not like I saw a lot of matches of her, but I'm sure that my team will prepare some highlights of her. We'll watch some of her games," she said.
