China Open: Aryna Sabalenka knocked out in the third round by Nikola Bartunkova

Sunday in Beijing, Aryna Sabalenka let five break points go in the sixth game of the opening set, with Nikola Bartunkova serving at 3-2. She then dropped her serve early in the second, threw her racket to the ground, and fell on the first match point: 6-4, 6-3 against the world No 34, in the third round of the China Open.

One service game was enough

That sixth game of the opening set shaped the whole match: Bartunkova, 20, saved the five chances one by one, and the Belarusian never found as clear an opening again. In their second meeting, the Czech comes out on top this time and records the biggest win of her young career.

“First of all, I focused on myself, to stay calm. Aryna is amazing. She is a legend. She is a Grand Slam champion. I am really happy to have won the match,” she said afterwards, in comments reported by We Love Tennis.

The top two seeds are both gone

A day earlier in the second round, top seed Elena Rybakina, the new world No 1 since the US Open, had lost to Alina Charaeva (3-6, 6-4, 6-3). The summit final expected between the two best players in the world will not happen, and the Beijing draw has lost both headliners before the second week.

Bartunkova then faces Austria’s Sinja Kraus, ranked 95th, in the last 16.