French Women Exit US Open as Clara Burel Falls to Aryna Sabalenka in One-Sided Match

There are no longer any French women at the US Open. Clara Burel, the last representative, was swept away in an hour by Aryna Sabalenka (6-1, 6-1). The world number 2, unplayable and very serious, left the Rennaise absolutely no chance, in what looked like a remake of the same confrontation last year, at the exact same stage of the competition. Everything was going too fast for Burel today, who only got one break point and suffered for most of the face-to-face. Sabalenka, on a mission after her 47th victory this season, will face either Daria Kasatkina or Greet Minnen.

There were no miracles on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court. While Clara Burel still had a tiny hope of representing the tricolor in the second week of the US Open, she stumbled on the same mountain as in 2022. An Everest even, called Aryna Sabalenka and who aims for nothing less than a second Grand Slam title in 2023, as well as the world number 1 spot.

The Belarusian was never worried in this part, where Burel still had all the trouble in the world to keep her face-off. In fact, as soon as the French returned a ball that was too short, that is to say too often she was machine-gunned. She looked like a sparring partner at times, and it took her until the second set to get her first and only break point. Not converted, of course.

Burel served as sparring partner

After about twenty minutes, it was already 5-0 for Sabalenka, who didn’t leave much in the way and, as a bonus, had the necessary success when he had to take some risks against the intermittent defense of Burel. The Frenchwoman may have thought to make her opponent doubt by pocketing the first game of the second set and racing in the lead. But it was only a decoy: behind, Sabalenka continued to apply his plan to the letter, consisting of being very aggressive on his face-offs and opportunistic on the slightest faults of Burel (the second serves). With 52% of first serves and half the points won (31 against 60), the Rennaise had nothing to hope for against the Belarusian, who still got 10 break points in an hour (50% success) .

If Burel could not do anything, the French had to accumulate a maximum of experience, in particular in a game of Sabalenka which exceeded eight minutes. There is no change to note compared to her defeat suffered last year, but she was able to measure the huge gap, in terms of power first, which still separates her from the best players on the circuit. For Sabalenka, this easy round saves her energy, which is always valuable when harboring big ambitions in a competition as tough and indecisive as the US Open.

2023-09-02 17:35:00
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