No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus needed just 70 minutes to crush No. 8 Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 6-1 in her opening match at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Sunday.

She capitalized on 11 aces and five service breaks.

Sabalenka already clinched the No. 1 year-end ranking and now is playing to win her first WTA Finals title. The victory came in her 500th career match, and she now is 60-11 on the season with four titles.

"That feels super special," she said of the No. 1 ranking. "I'm super happy and proud of the work that's been done and that I'm getting better and better every day. I hope we're gonna keep doing what we're doing. Hopefully we can stay there."

The win gives Sabalenka a leg up in the Stefanie Graf group, which also features No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 5 Jessica Pegu

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