Madrid, Apr 26 (AP) Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka faced tough resistance in her opening match at the Madrid Open before beating Magda Linette 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 on Friday.

The second-ranked Sabalenka struggled with her serve at times, but the two-time Australian Open winner struck her 10th ace on match point at the Caja Magica in Spain's capital.

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Sabalenka got some help from the net to get a key break and go up 5-3 in the third set when Linette was unable to reach a shot by the Belarusian that clipped the top of the tape.

Top-ranked Iga Swiatek won her opening match on Thursday. Sabalenka beat Swiatek in last year's final in Madrid and also won here in 2021.

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Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina beat Lucia Bronzetti 6-4, 6-3, while American Ashlyn Krueger downed Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-3, 6-3.

Mirra Andreeva, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Carolina Garcia, and Jasmine Paolini also advanced.

On the men's side, eighth-ranked Andrey Rublev snapped a four-game losing streak by defeating Facundo Bagnis 6-1, 6-4. Rublev's last win came at Indian Wells in March.

Tommy Paul got past qualifier Lukas Klein 6-7 (5), 6-1, 6-4 in his first clay-court match of the season after missing Monte Carlo due to injury.

Two-time defending champion Carlos Alcaraz is set to open his title defence later on Friday against Alexander Shevchenko despite fitness concerns that had made him doubt he could play. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)