Fifteen days after her only loss of the year, Aryna Sabalenka transitioned effortlessly back into championship form.

The newly minted Australian Open winner and No.2 seed was a 6-2, 6-0 winner over Evgeniya Rodina on Friday at the BNP Paribas Open. Sabalenka won in a scant 65 minutes and has now beaten Rodina all three times they’ve met. Rodina has lost all 11 of her career matches against Top 10 players.

"It was tricky game, I would say," Sabalenka said in press. "I didn't expect her play that slow. I was struggling a little bit with adjusting for the balls, because it was super slow.

Super happy with this win. Happy to win this match in two sets without struggling too much."

Sabalenka will next play Lesia Tsurenko -- a 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 winner against Donna Vekic -- in a third-round match on Sunday.

Sabalenka, who improved to 14-1 for the season, has featured a wonderful command in the pivotal moments of matches. She saved all four break points against Rodina -- increasing her tour-leading percentage of 74 going into the match.

Her second serve -- often an accurate window to a player’s confidence -- was a liability a year ago. Now, it has become a weapon. Sabalenka is winning more than half of her points when she’s forced to go to a second serve, which places her among the Top 10. She’s now hit 107 aces, balanced by only 62 double faults. That’s a remarkable turnaround from 2022, when she stroked 249 aces and 428 double faults -- by far the highest number on tour.

And while Sabalenka trailed No.1 Iga Swiatek by 4,485 points, there is reason to believe she can shrink that gap significantly. Swiatek won last year’s Sunshine Double (Indian Wells and Miami) and is defending 2,000 points. Sabalenka, meanwhile, has only 20 points to defend in those tournaments.

After winning the Adelaide 500 event and collecting her first major singles title in Melbourne, Sabalenka advanced to the quarterfinals in Dubai. She was 13-0 when hit the wall hard, losing to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova with a manic score line of 0-6, 7-6(2), 6-1.

After defeating Rodina, Sabalenka was interviewed on the Stadium 2 court, drawing warm applause when her Australian Open title was mentioned.

“Sounds crazy, yeah,” she said, smiling. “Just super-happy to be a Grand Slam champion. It’s something different, something special.”

A few days earlier, she was asked if the title left her feeling any different.

“To be honest,” she said, “Not really. I feel like the same player, just with a Grand Slam title. I still have to go on court, I still have to play my best tennis to win it, so nothing really changed.

“After this huge win, it’s easier to go on court, more than after a tough loss. I feel more motivated. I feel like I want to get more wins. It wasn’t that tough for me.”

Was the feeling better than she dreamed?

“Better, much better,” she said. “I want to feel it again -- it was so good.”