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Sabalenka in No Mood to Relax after Zheng’s Early Exit

This hand out picture released by the Tennis Australia on January 15, 2025 shows Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka speaks at a press conference after her women's singles match against Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (Vince Caligiuri/Tennis Australia / AFP)
This hand out picture released by the Tennis Australia on January 15, 2025 shows Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka speaks at a press conference after her women's singles match against Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (Vince Caligiuri/Tennis Australia / AFP)
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Sabalenka in No Mood to Relax after Zheng’s Early Exit

This hand out picture released by the Tennis Australia on January 15, 2025 shows Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka speaks at a press conference after her women's singles match against Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (Vince Caligiuri/Tennis Australia / AFP)
This hand out picture released by the Tennis Australia on January 15, 2025 shows Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka speaks at a press conference after her women's singles match against Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne. (Vince Caligiuri/Tennis Australia / AFP)

Aryna Sabalenka said early exits by big names at the Australian Open would not make her title defense any easier after the top seed saw one of her main title rivals go out in the second round with Zheng Qinwen's defeat by world number 97 Laura Siegemund.

Sabalenka sealed a battling 6-3 7-5 victory over Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro on Wednesday shortly before fifth seed Zheng, who lost to the Belarusian in last year's final, crashed out 7-6(3) 6-3.

Zheng's exit leaves Sabalenka with one less seed to worry about but the three-times Grand Slam champion said it made little difference in such a competitive field.

"Listen, it's a slam, you know? Not everyone can handle these emotions," Sabalenka told reporters.

"As you can see, there are so many players who are playing really well in these conditions. It's not like if they're gone, it's easy for me. No, it's not.

"I have to go there, I have to compete, I have to fight. Today's match proved that. Girls can go there and just play without any fear, without anything to lose.

"They can put you in really uncomfortable positions."

Sabalenka was feeling the pressure in her own match and trailed 5-2 at one point in the second set against Bouzas Maneiro, who stunned Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova in the opening round at the All England Club last year.

"I definitely didn't want a third set. Who wants it? But at that moment I didn't really want to get bothered by that and let go of the set," said Sabalenka, who is bidding to become the first woman to win three successive titles at Melbourne Park since Martina Hingis from 1997-99.

"I told myself, 'OK, let's go play a third' and I somehow mentally prepared myself for that, tried to find my serve to not to give her too many chances.

"Then somehow it seemed to me that she got tense when it got to 5-3 and I felt there was an opportunity. I'm very glad that I managed to finish in two sets.

"I didn't really want to get too physically exhausted in the second round."

Up next for Sabalenka is Dane Clara Tauson, who won the Auckland title in the build-up to the Australian Open after Naomi Osaka retired injured.

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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
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Al Rajhi Takes over Dakar Rally Lead after Miserable Stage for Lategan

Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)
Driver Yazeed Al Rajhi and co-driver Timo Gottschalk compete during the ninth stage of the Dakar Rally between Riyadh and Haradh, Saudi Arabia, Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025. (AP)

Local driver Yazeed Al Rajhi took advantage of a miserable stage by South Africa's Henk Lategan to grab the Dakar Rally lead in the Saudi Arabia desert on Tuesday.

Lategan led the Dakar for the past week, but errors and bad luck on the 357-kilometer ninth stage from Riyadh south-east to Haradh turned his overall lead of more than five minutes over Al Rajhi into a potentially decisive seven-minute deficit.

The rally has effectively two days and 400 kilometers remaining in the dunes of the Empty Quarter. The last day, Friday, is a ceremonial drive to the finish line in Shubaytah.

Al Rajhi, like Lategan, has never won the Dakar. This is the Saudi's 11th attempt with a best finish of third in 2022. He'd been lying second since last Wednesday. The title race appears to be between only them.

Third-placed Mattias Ekström of Sweden and five-time champion Nasser Al-Attiyah of Qatar were about 25 minutes behind.

“It's a bit of disaster to be honest,” Lategan said. “About 13 kilometers in we got lost. We thought we missed the waypoint but we actually had it. When we got lost we got one puncture and then towards the end we got another one and the wheel is actually flat. So, it was a messy, messy, messy day for us but it's not the end of the world, we're still in it.”

Lategan and navigator Brett Cummings were 11th on the stage and Al Rajhi and Timo Gottschalk third.

“We did a great job like we planned to,” Al Rajhi said. “We pushed well. We enjoyed it, that's the most important. I hope everything goes well the next two or three days to win the Dakar ... I will fight to win. It won't be easy.”

Al-Attiyah won the stage ahead of Belgium’s Guillaume de Mévius in under three hours to rise to one minute off third place overall.

His 49th car stage win, and first in the Dakar for Romanian manufacturer Dacia, lifted him to only one behind the record jointly held by Finland's Ari Vatanen and France's Stephane Peterhansel.

Sanders cushions motorbike lead Australian rider Daniel Sanders bolstered his motorbike lead to nearly 15 minutes when closest challenger, Spain's Tosha Schareina, crashed early.

The back wheel of Schareina's Honda hit a rock and sent him flying only 20 kilometers in. He resumed racing but the nearly four minutes he finished behind Sanders dropped him in the general standings.

Schareina's teammate Adrien van Beveren of France remained third, more than 20 minutes behind, while Sanders' KTM teammate Luciano Benavides of Argentina strengthened his position in fourth place by winning his second successive stage.

Benavides, thanks to collecting time bonuses of nearly five minutes by opening the way, beat Van Beveren by nearly two minutes, and repeated his win into Haradh two years ago. Sanders was third after leading until about 70 kilometers from the end.

“I only got lost a couple of times ... and lost a little bit of time,” Sanders said. “I could have pushed and made some more (time) but it's not too bad.”