Aryna Sabalenka continues her quest for her first win at the China Open

Top seed Aryna Sabalenka overcame a slow start to beat Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4, 6-1 and advance to the third round of the China Open in Beijing on Saturday.

Sabalenka won her 13th consecutive WTA Tour match in 76 minutes but wasn't entirely happy with her game.

“In the first set I had a little trouble with the rhythm,” said Sabalenka. “In the second set everything seemed to work much better. … I think that’s why it was smoother and better quality.”

The numbers from the match show that Sawangkaew, who made her tour debut at the Thailand Open last week, was unable to keep up with the world No. 2. Sabalenka won 75 percent of her points on her first serve, compared to just 48 percent for her opponent. Sabalenka won 52 percent of return points.

Sabalenka, who hails from Belarus, has a history of success in China, winning four of her 16 career tour singles titles in the country. However, she has not yet won the tournament in Beijing.

“It's always great to come back and feel the atmosphere, feel the vibe, know that I'm somehow gaining my fan club here,” said Sabalenka, who won the US Open and Australian Open this year. “It gives me more motivation to go there and compete, show my best tennis and make sure I stay until the final stage of the tournament so I can enjoy this atmosphere as much as possible.”

Breaking that mood in the next round will be American Ashlyn Krueger, who won 6-1, 7-6 (4) over New Zealand's Lulu Sun.

Her home country's Olympic gold medal-winning favorite Qinwen Zheng played a quick game, defeating Kamilla Rakhimova of Russia 6-1, 6-1 in front of a cheering crowd of about 15,000.

“The atmosphere was amazing,” said Zheng, the fifth seed. “I never thought Center Court would be so full. They put on my (favorite Chinese pop song). They just did everything for me.”

“When I played the China Open last year, I honestly remember it wasn't that crowded. Today I see that there is almost no free space.”

She will try to keep the momentum going in the third round against Nadia Podoroska of Argentina, who defeated Russia's Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-2.

Other winners on Saturday included Jaqueline Cristian of Romania, who beat seventh-seeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova 1-6, 6-4, 7-5; 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia of Brazil; 16th seed Donna Vekic from Croatia; 17th seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia; and 18th seed Madison Keys.

–Field level media