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Aryna Sabalenka kicked off her quest for an elusive first WTA Finals win with victory in her opening match at Indian Wells.
The former world number one defeated Karolina Muchova 7-6 (2) 7-5 to boost her hopes of going one better than last year’s final loss to Elena Rybakina.
Sabalenka is making her sixth consecutive appearance in the tournament but has never lifted the trophy, having also fallen at the final hurdle against Caroline Garcia in 2022.
Muchova started the game as the only player in the field with a winning record over her opponent, but twice failed to capitalise on going a break up in the opening set.
Instead Sabalenka fought back, and after Muchova had saved two set points, went to a tie-break where the favourite cruised into the lead helped by two big forehand errors from her opponent.
Three straight breaks in the second set left Sabalenka in control and despite failing to serve out for the match first time around, she made no mistake at the second attempt to get her campaign up and running.
In the second match on day two, Mirra Andreeva wasted no time in registering her first win as she swept aside sixth seed Elina Svitolina in little over an hour.
Andreeva grabbed the crucial break in the fifth game of a tight first set and managed to hold out before stepping up the pace and roaring through the second set to win 6-4 6-0.
Andreeva will next face Sabalenka and the pair are now in pole position with the top two in each group going through to the semi-finals.
