Bartunkova stuns Sabalenka as Beijing loses both top seeds

Within 24 hours, the China Open has lost both of its top two seeds. On Sunday, 20-year-old Czech Nikola Bartunkova beat world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka 6-4, 6-3 in the third round in Beijing. It was the biggest win of her career and came one day after new world No. 1 Elena Rybakina was knocked out by Alina Charaeva.

Bartunkova, ranked No. 34, needed one hour and 35 minutes to beat the four-time Grand Slam champion. She will next play Austria's Sinja Kraus for a place in the quarter-finals.

Sabalenka misses her chances

The match was decided on break points. Sabalenka had five of them in the first set and failed to take any. She did not earn another one in the second set. Bartunkova converted three of her eight opportunities and did not face a single break point after the opening set.

"It is the biggest win of my career," Bartunkova said, according to the WTA. She also said the conditions had affected her first-serve percentage, and that at 20 she still needed experience. It was only her second win over a top-10 player, against five losses. It was also her 22nd win of the season, 16 of them on hard courts, and her second appearance in the last 16 of a WTA 1000 event.

Sabalenka praised her opponent: "She is very talented, and moves well on court. She also serves well so you have to convert your chances against her." The defeat extends a worrying trend for the Belarusian, according to WTA statistics: she has now lost her last six matches after dropping the first set.

Rybakina's first match as No. 1 ends in a shock

Sabalenka's exit followed an even bigger surprise on Saturday night. In her first match as world No. 1, and her first since beating Sabalenka in the US Open final, Rybakina lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to Charaeva, who is ranked No. 118. The match lasted two hours and 11 minutes.

The 24-year-old Charaeva was playing only her 17th tour-level main-draw match. She became the lowest-ranked player to come from a set down to beat a reigning world No. 1, and only the ninth player outside the top 100 to beat a No. 1 since 1975. According to the WTA, Rybakina is only the second woman to lose her first match as world No. 1, after Naomi Osaka in 2019.

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"There was a lot going on after the US Open victory. I didn't get a lot of chances to sleep and recover," Rybakina said. Charaeva, whose previous best win was over Wang Xinyu, said: "I was just trying to stay really hard mentally and keep believing that at some point I could turn it around." She will next play Sonay Kartal.

The draw opens up

With the top two seeds gone, the title race at the China Open is wide open. Linda Noskova needed little time to beat Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-1, and Naomi Osaka also moved through against Sara Bejlek.

With Rybakina already gone, Bartunkova knocked out the last of the top two seeds. Her match against Kraus, who beat Dayana Yastremska 6-1, 6-4, is next. The semi-finals in Beijing are scheduled for 10 October and the final for 11 October.