French Open: Aryna Sabalenka brushes aside Moyuka Uchijima to reach third round at Roland Garros

World No 2 Aryna Sabalenka breezed past Japanese qualifier Moyuka Uchijima in straight sets on Thursday to reach the third round of the French Open.

Uchijima, playing in the second round of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time, could not cope with Sabalenka's powerful serve and groundstrokes as she succumbed 6-2 6-2 to the second seed.

Sabalenka won six points in a row at the start of the match before Uchijima finally began to settle her nerves and won her opening service game.

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But, at 3-2, Uchijima would be broken by the Belarusian, Sabalenka pouncing on a break point with a fierce winner before taking the first set in 29 minutes without dropping another game.

Uchijima wore a sombre expression during the changeover before the second set and she simply had no answers for the power of Sabalenka, who also played some telling drop shots.

The Japanese No 1 afforded herself a smile when she got the better of Sabalenka on a long rally to make it 4-2 in the second set, but the two-time Australian Open champion refocused to save a break point before breaking Uchijima's serve once more to seal an emphatic victory.

Sabalenka will next face Paula Badosa. The Spaniard, who defeated British No 1 Katie Boulter in the first round, came back to beat Yulia Putintseva 4-6 6-1 7-5 on Thursday.

Rybakina and Svitolina also through to third round

Roland Garros fourth seed Elena Rybakina overcame Arantxa Rus 6-3 6-4 to also book her place in the third round.

The 2022 Wimbledon champion seized control of the first set when, in the fifth game, down 15-30, she sent down three consecutive aces for a 3-2 lead and followed that with a break of serve as she claimed the set in 35 minutes.

There was little to separate the duo early in the second set before the lanky Rus took advantage of mistakes from her opponent to break for a 4-2 lead, only to immediately surrender her own serve in the next game.

Having levelled up at 4-4, Rybakina swiftly broke again to set up the chance to serve for the match, booking a meeting with Petra Martic or Elise Mertens in the next round.

Elina Svitolina survived a late scare to beat French hope Diane Parry 6-4 7-6 (7-3) and move one game away from a potential fourth-round clash with Rybakina at Roland Garros.

The 15th-seeded Ukrainian was a set and a double-break up, leading 4-1 in the second set, before she was twice broken, including when serving for the match, to force a tie-break.

But Svitolina survived the scare, triumphing 7-3 in said breaker, to reach the third round where she will face either 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Ana Bogdan.

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