After defeating Iga Swiatek to win the Madrid Open last weekend, Aryna Sabalenka said the standards set by the Polish world No 1 had driven her to keep improving. On a damp Thursday evening in Rome, Sabalenka discovered just how challenging it will be to maintain such standards week in, week out.
In a clash of Australian Open champions present and past, Sabalenka was brought crashing back to Earth by Sofia Kenin in the slow, heavy conditions at the Foro Italico, falling to a 7-6 (7-4), 6-2 loss. It was the first time this season that the Belarusian has lost before the quarter-finals of a tournament, and the first time in more than three years that Kenin, a former world No 4 now languishing at 134 after enduring a series of injuries and ailments, has beaten a top-10 player.
As Sabalenka acknowledged, reaching two finals in two weeks is no simple task. “Exhausted,” the world No 2, who lost to Swiatek a fortnight ago in Stuttgart before bouncing back to win in Madrid, tweeted in the aftermath of her unexpected defeat. “Definitely need some recharge.”
Time will tell if the setback was a blessing in disguise for the 25-year-old. While it will now be at least 11 days before she next plays competitively, Sabalenka looked jaded at times against Kenin. A period away from the match court could be just what the doctor ordered as she steels herself for the challenge that awaits at Roland Garros, where she has never previously advanced beyond the third round.
Against Kenin, Sabalenka twice recovered from a break down to force her way back into the opening set. But on a day when her game flicked in and out of life, she was never able to sustain the level of consistency required to seize control of the match, making 32 unforced errors and winning a meagre 31% of points behind her second serve.
Sabalenka faded following the first-set tiebreak, which got away from her quickly after Kenin conjured a glorious angled winner to cement the first mini-break. A flurry of errors saw Sabalenka lose six of the first seven points and, although Kenin wobbled briefly with the set at her mercy, she eventually converted her fourth set point, prising a mistake from the second seed with some fine defending.
“I’m really happy, I obviously know she’s had some great results playing some of the best tennis,” said Kenin, who will face Anhelina Kalinina, the Ukrainian world No 47, in round three.
“All credit to her. I just had to bring out my best game, and every point was tough.
“I had to be dominant. If I’d been passive, that wouldn’t have been good. I had to serve well and I had to return well – she’s got a huge serve – so I took my chances and was able to convert them. Luckily it went my way.”
It was Kenin’s best win by ranking since she defeated Ashleigh Barty, then world No 1, in the semi-finals of the 2020 Australian Open. She would go on to reach the French Open final later that year before her form and fortunes went into a tailspin. But having ended last season ranked outside the top 200, the 24-year-old has been quietly making progress in 2023, reaching the last four in Hobart at the start of the year, extending Elena Rybakina, the Wimbledon champion, to two tiebreaks in Indian Wells – and, notably, defeating Kalinina in straight sets in Miami.
In another major upset, Taylor Townsend, the world No 168, defeated her American compatriot Jessica Pegula, resisting a late fightback from the third seed to seal a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 victory. Townsend made a near-flawless start to the decider, winning 14 of the first 15 points, and although Pegula survived a match point at 2-5, a fine serving performance saw the lower-ranked woman home.
“I’m just really proud of myself,” said Townsend, 27, who left the tour three years ago to have her first child. “I’ve been working really hard over the past couple of years to come back. Moments like these are what it’s all about.
“Two years ago, a year ago, when I started back in April, I had these types of moments in my mind where I wanted to be in these types of situations. To be here and to be able to come through and play the way that I did, it really means a lot.”
It is a feeling with which Kenin will identify.