Golden chance slips from Sabalenka's clutches

Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka has missed the golden opportunity to close the gap to Poland’s Iga Swiatek after being knocked out of the ongoing China Open. The 26-year-old is already regarded as one of the best players currently playing in women’s tennis in the single category along with the likes of Poland’s Iga Swiatek.

Swiatek is leading the WTA rankings with 9,785 rating points. Her lead was reduced significantly as she failed to defend 1,000 points during the China Open where she lifted the title last year. That gave an opportunity to Sabalenka to reduce the gap to less than 200 points. For that to happen, the reigning world number two was supposed to lift the title.

However, she failed to achieve that objective as she was knocked out after losing in the quarterfinal to the Czech Republic’s Karolina Muchova with a score of 7-6, 2-6, 6-4. With that result, Sabalenka remains on the second spot with 8,716 points, roughly about 1,000 points behind Swiatek. The Minsk-born star will have another opportunity to close the gap to the reigning world number one in the upcoming Wuhan Open.

The Warsaw-born announced on Friday that she would not take part in the upcoming WTA 1000 event as well. "After a significant change in my sports team, I decided to withdraw from the Wuhan tournament. I am very sorry for the fans in China and for those who were expecting to see me play, but I hope they understand that I need some time," she said in an statement. Sabalenka has bee going through an impressive campaign as she lifted two out of four Grand Slams.

The current world number two first lifted the Australian Open after beating China’s Zheng Qinwen in the final in straight sets with a score of 6-3, 6-2. She then went on to lift the US Open after beating America’s Jessica Pegula in the final in straight sets with a score of 7-5, 7-5.