Aryna Sabalenka has shared her delight at winning a tough opening match against Karolina Muchova at the WTA Finals.

The WTA Finals second seed, Sabalenka beat Muchova 7-6(7-2), 7-5 after one hour and 53 minutes. It was far from straightforward for the Belarusian, who has now spoken highly of her opponent and shared how tricky it was to play in the conditions at Indian Wells.

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Aryna Sabalenka ‘super happy’ to beat Karolina Muchova at WTA Finals

Speaking to Sky Sports on court after the victory, Sabalenka said of winning in straight sets: “Yeah that was a tough battle, always tough matches against her. She’s such a high IQ player I have to say, and every time you have to be focused, you have to be ready for anything and you have to play smart. I’m super happy that I was able to start with the win.”

Discussing the sun at Indian Wells, she said: “Yeah, it was a bit tricky with the sun, with the shade, sometimes I had to adjust my toss, sometimes I had to sort of like serve blindly. But it’s all part of the game. I was trying to keep telling myself that we’re all in the same conditions and whoever deals better with that is going to win, so I’m glad that I was able to figure out a solution.”

And giving her thoughts on playing against a player who often changes the pace, the former WTA number one replied: “Yeah, it’s not easy but I have to say that I enjoy it the most because I feel like we’re actually playing the game, we’re trying to break the rhythm of each other, trying to tactically find the weakness in each other’s game, so I enjoy these kinds of matches much more.”

Sabalenka is clearly overjoyed with the victory, but she must quickly turn her focus to her second match at the WTA Finals. That arrives against Mirra Andreeva, who won her opener against Elina Svitolina. History is on the side of the Belarusian in their head-to-head, with Sabalenka leading the Russian 4-2 from their six career meetings so far.