Sabalenka flies into Cincinnati fourth round in 54 minutes; Medvedev crashes out after meltdown
Aryna Sabalenka needed just 54 minutes to reach the Cincinnati Open fourth round, dismantling China's Wang Xinyu 6-1 6-3 in a display that sent a clean message 11 days before the US Open. The world number one did not face a single break point — a chance for the returner to take the server's game — across the entire match. BBC Sport
The numbers are startling. Sabalenka lost only six points in eight service games. She hit 17 winners to just five unforced errors and broke Wang's serve four times, according to the WTA's match breakdown. WTA This after she had needed six match points to close out Australia's Talia Gibson in the previous round — a scrappier affair that seems to have sharpened rather than shaken her. WTA
Sabalenka arrived in Cincinnati looking to bounce back from a fourth-round exit in Toronto, and the hard courts of Ohio — the same surface the US Open is played on — clearly suit her. She is the two-time defending champion at Flushing Meadows, which begins on Sunday, 30 August. No woman has won the US Open singles title three times in a row since Serena Williams in 2014. BBC Sport
The ranking race adds another layer. Sabalenka held a 354-point lead over Australian Open champion Elena Rybakina going into Cincinnati. Rybakina needed to reach the final to have any chance of overtaking her, and would need to win the title outright if Sabalenka reached the quarter-finals. Every round Sabalenka advances, the maths gets harder for the Kazakh. BBC Sport
Next up for Sabalenka is unseeded Czech Sara Bejlek, with a quarter-final spot on the line. WTA A potential meeting with Elina Svitolina could follow further into the draw. WTA
While Sabalenka barely broke sweat, the men's draw produced the day's drama. Fourth seed Daniil Medvedev was beaten 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 by American Brandon Nakashima, who saved three consecutive match points on his own serve at 5-4 in the second set. ATP Tour Nakashima reached the fourth round by handing Medvedev his earliest Cincinnati exit since the Russian won the title here in 2019. ATP Tour
What happened next was ugly. After missing those three match points, Medvedev threw his racquet at the electronic courtside boards hard enough to break it, kicked a courtside screen and knocked over several microphones. BBC Sport He finished with 51 unforced errors — a tally that tells its own story about a player who lost his composure and never got it back. BBC Sport
Two matches, two very different stories on the same day. Sabalenka is peaking at exactly the right moment. Medvedev has work to do before New York.
