The Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, world No.2, was beaten for the first time in 16 meetings on Friday in the quarter-finals of the WTA 1000 tournament in Beijing, by the Czech Karolina Muchova (49th), 7-6 (7/5), 2-6, 6-4, losing the opportunity to get closer to Iga Swiatek in the rankings.
Sabalenka remained on two consecutive titles, at the Cincinnati tournament at the end of August then at the US Open last month, beating the American Jessica Pegula in the final each time.
This duel between two formidable waitresses offered a high-level spectacle from start to finish despite the difference in ranking. Sabalenka, seeded N.1, saved three break points in her first service game.
Muchova rejected two set points for the Belarusian at 5-4 before winning the tie-break of the first set won in 1h13, the first set lost by the No.2 since her third round at the US Open.
In the second set, Sabalenka broke her opponent at 1-1 then again at 4-2, and did not tremble when equalizing.
Muchova lost her footing at the start of the last set, letting her entry serve slip away. She managed to break the break at 2-1 for Sabalenka but she immediately reacted by giving her a blank break.
The Czech, who seemed on the verge of breaking, nevertheless managed to come back once again and then took the lead.
Sabalenka, visibly frustrated, then collapsed, losing the last ten points of the match.
– Sabalenka in Wuhan, not Swiatek –
“The conditions here are so difficult that it could go one way or the other. She made some wonderful returns, she gained momentum and started playing more aggressively,” said Sabalenka, who will line up at the WTA 1000 in Wuhan next week.
“It was a very high level match and she played incredible tennis,” praised the Belarusian.
With the withdrawal of the Polish Iga Swiatek for the WTA 1000 tournaments in Beijing and Wuhan, she lost the opportunity to score valuable points while she made the world No.1 position her declared end-of-season goal .
On Friday, Swiatek, who has reigned on the circuit for more than a year but is experiencing a delicate end to the season, also announced that he was parting ways with his coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski.
In Beijing, far from these worries, Muchova, 28, will face in the semi-final the Chinese Qinwen Zheng (7th) who, in front of her audience, got the better of the young Russian prodigy Mirra Andreeva (22nd), 5-7, 6-0, 6-4.
The Czech, finalist at Roland-Garros in 2023, has only one title to her name, won in Seoul in 2019.
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