World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has suffered her earliest loss in 15 months in a shock defeat on the Italian Open.
Aryna Sabalenka known as the physio earlier than dropping within the third spherical of the Italian Open (Picture: Sky Sports activities)
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has been despatched packing within the third spherical of the Italian Open, marking her earliest exit at any event since February 2025. The highest seed led Sorana Cirstea by a set and a break, however immediately fell away and was damaged six occasions within the match as she suffered a 2-6 6-3 7-5 defeat by the hands of the twenty sixth seed.
Sabalenka sparked considerations when she known as for the physio in the course of the third set, and lay on the court docket to obtain remedy for what gave the impression to be a again subject throughout a medical timeout. The four-time Main champion performed on however was overwhelmed by 36-year-old Cirstea, who’s retiring on the finish of this season.
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With the French Open now simply a few weeks away, it raises alarm bells for Sabalenka, who additionally misplaced to thirtieth seed Hailey Baptiste within the quarter-finals of final week’s Madrid Open. For the primary time since 2022, the Belarusian will go to Roland Garros having not reached the ultimate of both Madrid or Rome beforehand.
Extra importantly, there might be questions surrounding Sabalenka’s health after she obtained a medical timeout within the deciding set. The world No. 1 has been one of the crucial constant gamers this yr, profitable titles in Brisbane, Indian Wells, and Miami, and ending runner-up on the Australian Open.
However her clay season hasn’t fairly gone to plan. After lacking the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, she has now misplaced two of her final three matches. The highest seed in Rome stormed previous two-time Main champion Barbora Krejcikova in her opening match on Thursday, however began to battle in opposition to Cirstea in set two.
Sabalenka saved herself in it, nonetheless, and broke as Cirstea served for the match at 5-4 within the decider. “I believe that’s the primary shot this match that I’ve seen Cirstea get correctly fallacious,” commentator Liam Broady stated because the Romanian gave Sabalenka a break level. “She’s been so correct for 2 entire units now.”
However Cirstea broke the Belarusian once more within the very subsequent recreation, and Sabalenka vented her frustrations in direction of her staff as they sat down for the changeover with the twenty sixth seed again within the lead. Sabalenka continued muttering in direction of them as she headed again to the baseline, hoping she might once more maintain herself in it.
Sorana Cirstea earned her first-ever win over a world No. 1 (Picture: Getty)
On the second time of asking, the Romanian didn’t blink and, on match level, fired down an enormous serve that Sabalenka couldn’t get again into play, claiming the largest victory of her profession in what’s the remaining yr of her profession.
Afterwards, she informed the group: “Completely, I am very, very pleased. I imply, she’s a tremendous participant, she doesn’t want an introduction, she’s No. 1 on this planet, and I am very proud of the win. I assumed I performed very effectively right this moment. Once more, I’m working actually, actually laborious, so it’s good to have these outcomes as payoff.”
And requested whether or not she might rethink her retirement after beating a world No. 1 for the very first time, Cirstea joked: “Perhaps if I win the event, I promise I’ll give it some thought!”
The 36-year-old is thru to the fourth spherical to face thirteenth seed Linda Noskova, whereas Sabalenka doubtless received’t play once more till the French Open, except she takes a late wildcard into the smaller occasions in Strasbourg or Rabat.
Sabalenka had reached not less than the quarter-finals of her final 17 tournaments. She had not misplaced this early at any occasion since final February, when she received a spherical on the Dubai Tennis Championships earlier than Clara Tauson beat her.
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