Belarusian tennis player Sabalenka withdraws from Italian Open due to injury

Sorana Cirstea Defeats Aryna Sabalenka in Italian Open Third Round

In a surprising turn of events, Sorana Cirstea defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the third round of the Italian Open. The match took place on Saturday, with Sabalenka suffering from lower back pain during the contest.

The score was 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in favor of Cirstea, who earned her first win over a world number one player. Cirstea expressed her happiness and satisfaction with the result, stating that she had played well despite Sabalenka’s exceptional skills.

Sabalenka attributed her poor performance to her body limiting her ability to play at its best. She mentioned that she felt like her lower back, connected to the hip, was restricting her full rotation during the match. The 28-year-old acknowledged that she would need time to recover and regain her fitness before the French Open.

The loss marks Sabalenka’s second straight surprise exit from a tournament, following her quarterfinal defeat at the Madrid Open last week. Cirstea will move on to face Linda Noskova in the round of 16.

Meanwhile, Jannik Sinner made a strong start to his Italian Open campaign, defeating Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 6-4. The world number one won his 24th consecutive match and set up a potential clash with Alexei Popyrin or Jakub Mensik in the third round.

Defending champion Jasmine Paolini suffered a disappointing loss to Elise Mertens, wasting three match points before ultimately falling short. Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime also experienced an unexpected defeat at the hands of Mariano Navone.

Source: Al Jazeera