Elena Rybakina surprisingly lost already in the third round of the 2023 US Open to Romania's Sorana Cirstea.
Only a few weeks ago, the Kazakhstani player was forced to play until 3 AM at the WTA 1000 tournament in Montreal, and many players talked about the scheduling after the scheduling incident.
Coming to the 2023 US Open, Rybakina said that she wanted to avoid a late-night finish, but already in the third round, her wish wasn't granted as she was scheduled as the last match at the Louis Armstrong Stadium on Friday.
The 2022 Wimbledon champion is, of course, a professional, and she wanted to overcome this challenge, but she didn't face only a late-night finish trouble, but also an inspired effort from her opponent, the 30th-seeded Cirstea.
The two met twice before, back in 2020, and it was Rybakina who proved victorious in both matches, but this time around, things were different. The fourth seed didn't start well, losing her serve already in the fourth game, and since she couldn't create break point chances in the first set, she lost it 3-6.
Early on in the second set, it seemed that Rybakina may lose already in two sets, after she was broken in the opening game. But the Kazakhstani player fought back, and forced the tie-break in the second set of the third-round match.
Cirstea got as close as two points to winning the match at 6-6 in the tie-break, but that wasn't enough as the fourth seed won the last two points, winning the tie-break 8-6, and taking the match into the decider.
Approaching midnight, Rybakina wasn't able to show her best tennis. She lost her serve just too often, and the most costly serve loss came at 4-5 in the third set, as she didn't get a chance to recover that break of serve from her opponent.
After two hours and 49 minutes, Cirstea won the match 6-3, 6-7(6), 6-4, taking out the fourth-seeded Rybakina, and taking care of the biggest upset of the 2023 US Open so far on the women's side.
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