The world’s two best women’s tennis players have just been knocked out of Beijing by opponents almost nobody expected to beat them.
Elena Rybakina, fresh off winning the U.S. Open and ascending to world No. 1, lost to Alina Charaeva, a player ranked No. 118 whom even fairly serious tennis fans would struggle to identify.
Then Aryna Sabalenka, the world’s No. 2, lost 6-4, 6-3 to Nikola Bartunkova, an excellent young Czech with a promising future but hardly someone you’d expect to dispatch Sabalenka in straight sets at a WTA 1000 tournament.
First, congratulations to Charaeva and Bartunkova. Both deserve enormous credit for their victories. Bartunkova, in particular, has already demonstrated that she can compete with the world’s best, having pushed Sabalenka to the brink in Berlin earlier this season.
From US Open champion to out early.
But let’s talk about the bigger problem. Why are we watching two of the world’s greatest players exit one of the WTA’s most important tournaments so early?
I have a theory, and anyone who’s been reading my tennis columns over the past few years will recognize it immediately. Exhaustion.
We can’t establish that exhaustion caused either defeat simply by looking at the scores. But Rybakina has already spoken about her lack of recovery following the U.S. Open, and these results should prompt some serious questions about what we’re asking of professional tennis players.
I’ve argued repeatedly that the professional tennis calendar is badly broken. The solution isn’t particularly complicated, although implementing it would require the sport’s administrators to make something they apparently find almost impossible: a sensible decision.
Finish the U.S. Open. Take a week off. Hold the WTA and ATP Tour Finals. Then go home.
Give these athletes a genuine off-season, eliminate the absurdity of mandatory tournament requirements and allow them to begin the following year with healthy bodies and some enthusiasm for the sport they love. Because if Beijing tells us anything, it’s that tennis needs to stop confusing more tennis with better tennis.
Aron SolomonGuest Author
A Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist for his groundbreaking op-ed in The Independent exposing the NFL’s “race-norming” policies, Aron Solomon, JD, is a globally recognized thought leader in law, media, and strategy.
As Chief Strategy Officer for AMPLIFY, he leverages his deep expertise to shape the future of legal marketing. Aron has taught entrepreneurship at McGill University and the University of Pennsylvania and was honored as a Fastcase 50 recipient, recognizing him among the world’s top legal innovators. A prolific commentator on law, business, and culture, his insights regularly appear in Newsweek, The Hill, Crunchbase News, and Literary Hub.
He has also been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, Fortune, Forbes, CBS News, CNBC, USA Today, ESPN, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed, Venture Beat and countless other leading global media outlets. We are proud to have Aron on board at TennisUpToDate, where his deep tennis expertise enriches the site with sharp, original columns that connect the sport to wider cultural debates.
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- No more bullshit "Wildcards" to these two. Qualify like everyone else -- there will be cameras there, too. Time to scream... WTF ????!!!!
mandoist29-09-2026 - Let's not BS the general public -- Sabalenka started showing cracks in her game last season. Her losses and near-losses started at about the same time she began being distracted by Fame (constant Selfies, making TV commercials, magazine shoots, endless Social Media nonsense, etc., etc.) One would think even Saba could recognize the parallels with others who failed before her -- Raducanu, Giorgi, Bouchard to name a few.mandoist25-09-2026
- Gross!! Hey Raducanu, Giorgi, and Bouchard -- reserve a seat at your Social Media Selfie table for Saba + Naomi. They're heading in your direction soon enough.mandoist24-09-2026
- And then these same players will complain about how lengthy their season’s were and need more time-off. I’m all for more tennis but the amount of tennis we get now is actually kind of crazy! We all need a break, especially the players.DaveyWavey23-09-2026
- You should do a comparison article for "different kinds of justice" the courts decide for tennis players. I can think of at least three players who received very small bans of a few months, however Tara Moore has been fighting for her literal survival the past few years. It seems odd considering she is not a "name" player, unlike the other cases.DaveyWavey22-09-2026
- PRIZE MONEY & POINTS Winner - $185,500 Finalist - $114,500 Semi-Finalist - $66,003 Quarter-Finalist - $35,000 Round of 16 - $18,045 Round of 32 - $13,005 Winner - 500 Finalist - 325 Semi-Finalist - 195 Quarter-Finalist - 108 Round of 16 - 60 Round of 32 - 1DaveyWavey20-09-2026
- Pegula withdrew from this Singapore event
tennishappens19-09-2026 - Serena Williams chose her tournaments. It's not such a bad idea.MuswellHillbilly17-09-2026
- This child is just too fragile. Step away from tennis for a year. Get healthy, get fit; train hard;ranking be damned, and come back as strong contender. Anisimova did it. So can Emma.Rapunzel17-09-2026
- Double standards, what can be said!? Venus is p**ing on media and public. Can't face defeat. Cowerdness! Shouldn't be given any other wild cards ever. That's gross disrespect.DragosJacob16-09-2026
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