Top seeds, Aryna Sabalenka and Alexander Zverev, crashed out of the Cincinnati Open in a matter of hours on a rainy fourth-round day of action.
American Tommy Paul saved a match point on the way to a 4-6, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 upset of Germany’s Zverev on Wednesday.
But the biggest shock came on the women’s side, where Czech Sara Bejlek, ranked 35th, stunned world number one Sabalenka 7-6 (9/7), 6-4 in a gritty match that finished up shortly after the clock ticked past midnight into yesterday morning.
Zverev’s match was interrupted by rain for 90 minutes in the seventh game of the second set and had two more five-minute pauses as drops were dried from the court.
French Open champion Zverev had a chance to close it out at 6-5 in the second-set tiebreaker but stuffed a volley into the net.
The German again gained an edge in the deciding set with a break for 4-2, but Paul broke back in the next game and again for a 5-4 lead on the way to his third win over Zverev in their last four meetings.
Second seed Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada was another casualty, falling 6-3, 6-4 to American Frances Tiafoe.
Zverev’s conqueror Paul next faces Roland Garros runner-up Flavio Cobolli, who laboured two and a half hours to engineer a turnaround against red-hot Spaniard Rafael Jodar 4-6, 7-6 (7/3), 6-3.-Aljazeera
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Aryna Sabalenka (left) and Alexander Zverev
