Aryna Sabalenka joked that she was "born with an angry face" before getting serious and admitting that she felt frustrated early on against Sorana Cirstea in Brisbane.
On Tuesday, the top-seeded Belarusian launched her Brisbane title defense with a dominant 6-0 6-1 win over Cristina Bucsa.
Two days later, Sabalenka started off by breaking Cirstea in the very first game of the match, but got broken back instantly. Then, the Belarusian also missed out on a break point in the third game.
The four-time Grand Slam champion, who appeared to be frustrated with how things were going early on, ultimately managed to find her rhythm after breaking the 35-year-old Romanian veteran twice in the rest of the first set. In the second set, the two players were tied to three games apiece before the top seed stepped up and took the next three games to seal a 6-3 6-3 win.
Sabalenka asked about 'looking angry' early on: That's just my face
"That's just my face. You know, guys, I was just born with this face (smiling)," the world No. 1 joked.
"No, no, at the beginning I struggled a little bit with the rhythm, and I was just trying to find the rhythm and the focus, like, the right focus. And that's it.
"Yeah, I think after a couple of games, I found my game a little better and the level was increasing every game I would play, so it wasn't really frustration or something else. I was just trying to figure my game."
Sabalenka is now on a seven-match winning streak in Brisbane. Overall, the Belarusian owns an 11-1 record in Brisbane, having also finished as runner-up at the tournament in 2024.
In the Brisbane quarterfinal, Sabalenka will face either Madison Keys in a rematch of the 2025 Australian Open final. The head-to-head between them stands at 5-2 in the Belarusian's favor.
