Aryna Sabalenka kickstarted her bid for a first WTA Finals crown with a routine 6-4 6-1 victory over Jasmine Paolini in the opening match of the Steffi Graf Group.

The world number one, a beaten semi-finalist at the last two editions of the year-end event, breezed through her first round-robin match in just 71 minutes.

It was the Belarusian's 500th career match at WTA events, excluding the Billie Jean King Cup, and she marked the occasion with a dominant performance.

Sabalenka started as she meant to go on, breaking Paolini's serve at the very first attempt. The Italian recovered that break in game six, but that was only a moment of temporary respite as Sabalenka pulled clear again in the next game before serving out the opening set.

With the first set in the books within 36 minutes, Sabalenka started the second even more quickly with back-to-back breaks, though she also had to fend off two break points for Paolini in between.

Paolini, who entered the event with the most indoor victories this year among the eight participants (six), never looked likely to recover from there, and she was broken one final time as Sabalenka converted her first match point against the serve.

60+ - Aryna Sabalenka (60) and Iga Swiatek (62) are the first duo to claim 60+ WTA level wins in a calendar year since Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska in 2013. Similarities.#WTAFinalsRiyadh | @WTA @WTAFinalsRiyadh pic.twitter.com/PVjUNZyoDk

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) November 2, 2025

Data Debrief: Sabalenka starts strongly on 500th outing

After 500 career matches at WTA Tour events, Sabalenka now boasts an overall record of 365 wins and 135 defeats.

And her latest victory maintained her knack of starting well at the WTA Finals. She has won her last three opening matches at the WTA Finals, versus Ons Jabeur in 2022, Maria Sakkari in 2023 and Qinwen Zheng in 2024.

Both her and Iga Swiatek – who beat Madison Keys on Saturday – have started four successive editions of the tournament with a win, with Simona Halep the previous player to do so (five in a row between 2014 and 2019).

The player ranked number one in the world has now started the last 12 editions of the WTA Finals with a victory, with Dinara Safina last failing to do so in 2009, retiring from her opener against Jelena Jankovic in Doha.