🎾 Roland Garros R1: Aryna Sabalenka vs Kamilla Rakhimova

🎾 Roland Garros R1: Aryna Sabalenka vs Kamilla Rakhimova – Match Preview

🧠 Form & Context

🇧🇾 Aryna Sabalenka
👑 World No. 1: With a 34–6 record in 2025, Sabalenka is firmly positioned as the French Open title favorite.
🏆 Stacked résumé: Champion in Miami and Madrid, and runner-up at Australian Open and Indian Wells.
🚀 Clay confidence: Back-to-back deep runs in Paris (SF in 2023, QF in 2024) have reversed her earlier struggles at Roland-Garros.
🔁 Battle-tested: Each of her last five losses in Paris came in three sets—she’s tough to put away.
🇷🇺 Kamilla Rakhimova
🧱 Slam struggles: 4–8 in Grand Slam first rounds; hasn’t reached R2 in any major since 2023.
📉 Poor 2025 form: Just 4 wins in 12 WTA events this season, only recently breaking through with a couple of wins in 125K Paris.
🎾 Clay comfort: Two of her four Slam R2 appearances have come in Paris—she reached R3 here in 2023.
🧊 Low momentum: Hasn’t won consecutive main-draw matches on the WTA Tour since late 2024.

🔍 Match Breakdown

Sabalenka’s elite serve, raw power, and recent success on clay make her a nightmare matchup for a struggling Rakhimova. The Belarusian’s aggression is especially lethal when paired with improved shot tolerance and clay-court patience, both of which she’s developed over the past two seasons. Rakhimova’s defensive game can be effective against lower-ranked players, but she doesn’t have the tools to trouble someone with Sabalenka’s pace and depth. Their previous meeting at Roland Garros in 2023 saw Rakhimova win just four games. While she pushed Sabalenka to three sets in Washington last year, that was on hard courts—and form has shifted dramatically since. Unless Sabalenka is completely off her game, this should be one-way traffic.

🔮 Prediction

With all factors leaning heavily in her favor—form, surface, head-to-head, and confidence—this should be a straightforward start to Sabalenka’s campaign. 🧩 Prediction: Sabalenka in 2 sets. Expect a dominant performance from the world No. 1, with Rakhimova unlikely to keep up unless Sabalenka self-destructs.