Defending champion Sabalenka crashes out of Madrid against Anisimova

Thursday, 28 April 2022 at 18:03

2021 Madrid Open champion Aryna Sabalenka crashed out of the event against Amanda Anisimova 2-6 6-3 4-6.

It was not a good match from Sabalenka, at least not as good as she played in Stuttgart last week. It looked quite similar to her match against Swiatek in the final as she did not find a very good rhythm for better parts of the match. The opening set saw the players trade blows quite harshly as both like to attack and hit the ball hard.

Anisimova was much more consistent and she won the majority of those rallies including the set 6-2. Things changed in the 2nd set as Sabaelnka finally found a good rhythm which coincided with a drop in focus from Anisimova. She took a 3-1 lead and while she did give it back to make it 4-3 she rose out on top once more taking the 2nd 6-3.

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Things got back to somewhat normalcy in the 3rd set as Sabalenka continued to play the key rallies worse. She lost her serve early to give her opponent the 4-1 lead but battled back all the way back to 4-4 shifting the momentum a little bit. Anisimova looked dejected but kept her composure to win a crucial serving game at 4-4.

She then got a bit lucky with Sabalenka throwing away the game with a couple of cheap mistakes including a double fault on match point for Anisimova. Sabalenka drops 900 points with this loss dropping down to at least 7th on Monday.

José Morgado

@josemorgado

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Amanda Anisimova beats the defending champion Aryna Sabalenka 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the 2nd round in Madrid. Sabalenka loses 1000 points and will drop *at least* to number 7 in the world...

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