Aryna Sabalenka Stunned By Daria Kasatkina at China Open 2019

Wuhan Open 2019 champion Aryna Sabalenka crashed out in her second-round match at the China Open 2019 as she was defeated by unseeded Daria Kasatkina in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 in nearly 2 hours on Tuesday in Beijing.

Set One

The Belarusian, Aryna Sabalenka was troubled in her opening service game of the match as Daria Kasatkina earned two break points but failed to grab the opportunity. Aryna Sabalenka also had the chance to break Kasatkina in the fourth game of the match but squandered the breakpoint opportunity.

Daria Kasatkina then changes gears and broke the world no. 14 twice to get the advantage of a double break up in the first set. However, the Russian was broken as the 12th seed, Sabalenka fought back hard to stay in the set while receiving but Kasatkina served out the set 6-4 after 44 minutes of play.

Set two

Daria Kasatkina continued her momentum in the second set as she broke the Belarusian in her opening service game of the second set. However, Sabalenka was not ready to fall apart as she fought back to break Kasatkina in the fourth game of the set to get back on serve.

The series of break of serves continued as the two players exchanged a break in the fifth and the sixth game of the set respectively. In the next game, the 21-year-old fought hard to save three break points to hold a crucial service game 4-3.

The two players then held their service game till 6-6, forcing the set to go through the tiebreaker. At 4-5 in the tiebreaker, Daria changed gears to win three consecutive points to win the tiebreaker 7-5.

The Russian player, Daria Kasatkina will next face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the next round of the Beijing Open 2019.