China Open Loses Its Top Two Seeds as Rybakina and Sabalenka Fall on Consecutive Days

The China Open has lost both of its top two women’s seeds on consecutive days, leaving the Beijing draw without a No. 1 or No. 2 in the round of 16 for the first time since 2015. World No. 1 Elena Rybakina lost her first match since taking the top ranking, beaten by the world No. 118 on Saturday, and world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka followed her out on Sunday, losing 6-4, 6-3 to 20-year-old Nikola Bartunkova in the third round, IANS reports. The two beaten finalists from last month’s US Open are both gone inside the opening week.

What happened to world No. 1 Elena Rybakina?

She lost to a player ranked 117 places below her. Rybakina, who replaced Sabalenka as world No. 1 last month after beating her in the US Open final, took the opening set against Russia’s Alina Charaeva, then lost 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in two hours and eleven minutes.

The oddity inside the upset is the record it set. Charaeva became the lowest-ranked player ever to beat a reigning women’s world No. 1 after losing the first set, a mark that stretches back to the introduction of the WTA rankings in 1975, according to tournament reporting. Rybakina hit seven double faults, and Charaeva converted five of her eight break point chances. Seeding is supposed to protect the top players from exactly this kind of opening match; Rybakina’s protection lasted one match, because as the top seed she had not played before the second round.

How did Nikola Bartunkova beat Aryna Sabalenka?

By never giving her serve away. Bartunkova, the Czech world No. 34, broke Sabalenka three times and did not lose her own serve once in a 6-4, 6-3 win that took one hour and 35 minutes, IANS reports. The match turned in the sixth game of the first set, when Bartunkova saved five break points to hold for 4-2, and she finished with four aces, Al Jazeera reports.

A frustrated Sabalenka tossed her racquet when broken in the second set and netted a return on the first match point. “I focused on myself, to be calm. She’s a legend, she’s a Grand Slam champion. I’m really happy that I won the match,” Bartunkova said. It was her second win over a Top 10 player, after beating Belinda Bencic at this year’s Australian Open, IANS reports.

What records and oddities do the two upsets set?

Three, stacked together. First, neither top seed reached the round of 16: the last time that happened at this tournament was 2015, when Simona Halep and Petra Kvitova held the top two seedings, IANS reports. Second, Charaeva’s win is the lowest-ranked comeback ever recorded against a reigning world No. 1. Third, the pair who contested the US Open final last month, the two most in-form players in the sport on paper, won one match between them in Beijing.

The men’s draw at the same event supplied its own talking point a day later, when Novak Djokovic called a video-review rule ‘stupid’ during his win over Alexander Zverev. Beijing’s week has been defined by its officials and its upsets, not by its favourites.

Why does Sabalenka keep stalling in Beijing?

Because this tournament has never bent for her. Sabalenka has not gone past the quarter-finals in five main-draw appearances at the China Open, IANS reports, a record that sits oddly beside her four Grand Slam titles and her hard-court wins elsewhere. This year also continues a longer drought: she won Indian Wells and Miami at the start of 2026 but has not added a title since, despite reaching the US Open final last month.

Bartunkova’s defence exposed the pattern. Sabalenka created five break points in a single game of the first set and took none of them, and a player who cannot convert pressure in Beijing keeps handing matches to opponents willing to absorb it.

What does the double exit do to the women’s draw?

It opens it to everyone left. Bartunkova plays Austria’s Sinja Kraus next for a quarter-final place, Al Jazeera reports, and fifth seed Mirra Andreeva, the French Open champion, is now one of the highest-ranked players remaining after beating Polina Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1.

The ranking question also sharpens. Rybakina took the No. 1 spot from Sabalenka only last month, and an opening-match defeat in her first event as No. 1 hands Sabalenka an immediate, if unlikely, route back: she would have needed a deep Beijing run to take it, and instead matched Rybakina’s early exit almost exactly. Both women leave Beijing with the ranking race exactly where the US Open left it, and a WTA 1000 event with no top-two seed in its second week.