Aryna Sabalenka records 100th career win as No. 1 with latest Roland Garros victory

Aryna Sabalenka continued to power her way through the draw at Roland Garros on Saturday, defeating Daria Kasatkina in straight sets in the third round of the clay-court major, 6-0, 7-5.

And it wasn’t just any old win for the world No. 1—it was her milestone 100th career win as the world No. 1.

Sabalenka is spending her 92nd and 93rd career weeks at No. 1 during the two weeks of Roland Garros, as well as her 84th and 85th consecutive weeks—already one of the Top 10 longest streaks at the top spot in WTA rankings history.

She’s just the ninth player since WTA rankings began in 1975 to win 100 matches as world No. 1, after Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Serena Williams, Justine Henin and most recently Iga Swiatek.

Sabalenka had beaten Kasatkina in straight sets in their last four meetings in a row—as well as in seven of their last eight meetings—and for a while it looked like this one might be another dominant win, as the world No. 1 stormed through the first set in just 29 minutes on Court Suzanne Lenglen.

Kasatkina wasn’t going to go down quietly, though, as she broke in the very first game of the second set and then held at love for a 2-0 lead. Sabalenka broke back right away, but then the two went into a holding pattern for a while, trading holds of serve until they found themselves locked at 5-all.

And Kasatkina threatened to break again in the next game, winning the first two points—but from 5-all, 0-30, Sabalenka reeled off eight of the last nine points of the match to close it out in a rush after an hour and 16 minutes on court.

She’s now reached the fourth round or better at the last 14 Grand Slams in a row that she’s played, her last time losing in the first week of one coming exactly four years ago, falling to Italy’s Camila Giorgi in the third round of 2022 Roland Garros.

Awaiting the No. 1-seeded Sabalenka in the fourth round will be No. 16 seed Naomi Osaka, who battled past No. 17 seed Iva Jovic in two minutes shy of three hours, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (3), 6-4.

Osaka, a four-time major winner, is now through to the second week of Roland Garros for the first time in her career.

Sabalenka leads Osaka in their head-to-head, 2-1, losing their first meeting in the fourth round of the US Open all the way back in 2018, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, but winning their two most recent meetings this year, in the fourth round of Indian Wells (6-2 6-4) and in the fourth round of Madrid (6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2).