Three weekends ago, Elena Rybakina was lifting the U.S. Open trophy and claiming the World No. 1 ranking.
Sports can be a humbling experience.
In her first match at the China Open in Beijing, Rybakina became just the second player to lose in her first match as the world’s top-ranked player.
Moreover, the Kazakhstani fell to Alina Charaeva, a 24-year-old Armenian who was playing in only her 17th WTA main-draw match.
Charaeva prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, displaying a dominant service game in the deciding set.
Per OptaAce, Charaeva became the lowest-ranked player (No. 118) to record a comeback win against a World No. 1 since WTA rankings were first published in 1975.
“It’s kind of a dream come true,” Charaeva said in her post-match interview. “I was just trying to stay really hard mentally and keep believing that at some point I could turn it around again to my side. And I guess I just never stopped believing.”
Charaeva won 20 of 26 service points in the third set and did not face a break point. She broke Rybakina in the sixth game to lead 4-2, and only lost one point in her final two service games.
Rybakina joined Japan’s Naomi Osaka (2019) as the only two players to drop their first matches as World No. 1.
“Obviously it was a very tough day out there,” Rybakina said after the match. “There was a lot going on after the U.S. Open victory. I didn’t get a lot of chances to sleep and recover. Congratulations to Alina. She played a very good match, and I felt my foot a little bit at the end of the match. So it’s time to rest a little bit and see what is next in the upcoming weeks.”
The other major upset was 16-year-old Xinran Sun getting past No. 27 Cristina Busca 6-4, 7-5. The Chinese teenager, who was ranked No. 1 on the ITF Junior Circuit, will face Coco Gauff in the third round.
In other upsets of seeded players, Kamilla Rakhimova of Uzbekistan edged Canadian No. 23 Leylah Fernandez 6-2, 4-6, 6-3; China’s Qinwen Zheng advanced past Russian Anna Kalinskaya 6-7 (4), 6-4, 3-0, ret.; and Great Britain’s Sonia Kartal upset No. 31 Xinyu Wang of China, 6-3, 6-2.
Seeded players to advance to the third round were No. 6 Elina Svitolina of Ukraine, No. 8 Iga Swiatek of Poland, No. 9 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, No. 10 Iva Jovic, No. 24 Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia and No. 25 Maria Sakkari of Greece.
–Field Level Media
