Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1, suffered her earliest defeat in more than a year as she was toppled in the third round of the Italian Open by the soaring Romanian veteran Sorana Cirstea, who brilliantly held her nerve to close out a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win.
The defeat marks a second successive surprise loss for Sabalenka, who started the clay-court season in some of the best form of her career after consecutive victories at the WTA 1000 events at Indian Wells and Miami. Until her quarter-final defeat to Hailey Baptiste at the Madrid Open last week, where Baptiste spectacularly saved six match points, Sabalenka had started the year by winning 26 of her first 27 matches.
This is also the first time Sabalenka has lost before the quarter-final stage at any tournament since February 2025 and she will head to the French Open having failed to reach the semi-final in any clay-court tournament this year. Sabalenka also has fresh injury concerns to address after struggling with a lower back injury in the final stages of the match.
Cirstea, meanwhile, continues to save the best tennis of her entire career for her farewell tour. Cirstea, 36, will retire from professional tennis at the end of this season but she has performed at a consistently high level from the start of the season. Despite being a constant presence near the top of the sport for 17 years, Cirstea has never broken the top 20, peaking at No 21 in 2013. She sits at No 14 in the live WTA Race and this is the first time that Cirstea has ever beaten a No 1 player. She had lost all 12 sets in prior meetings with the No 1 player.
As was the case with Novak Djokovic a day earlier during his surprise three-set defeat to the men's No 79, Dino Prizmic, this result seemed unlikely early on as Sabalenka rolled through the first set. However, Cirstea recovered impressively, playing with fearless aggression in the final two sets as she controlled the majority of points and forced an erratic Sabalenka behind the baseline.
Down a break at 3-4 in the final set, Sabalenka received a medical timeout on her lower back. Even as she visibly struggled with her back, Sabalenka fought hard and she provided herself with an opportunity to turn the match around, pulling Cirstea back to 5-5 from 3-5 down. Cirstea composed herself and then forced herself back on to the front foot, winning the final two games to close out an enormous victory.
