Aryna Sabalenka stunned out of Cincinnati as top seeds fall in the last 16
SportLocation Tennis Desk · 6 Sept 2026
Aryna Sabalenka's latest hard-court outing comes against a backdrop of a shock Cincinnati Open exit, with Sky Sports reporting that the top seed was beaten in the last 16 as Coco Gauff moved on to the quarter-finals.
Aryna Sabalenka's name sits at the centre of a major Cincinnati Open upset, with Sky Sports reporting that the top seed was stunned in the last 16 as the tournament's women's draw opened up around her.
The available match footage shows a hard-court baseline exchange in progress, with Sabalenka identified in the metadata and the near player working through a rally in a white top and magenta shorts. The point features the sort of lateral movement and recovery that define elite hard-court tennis, with both players trading groundstrokes from the back of the court.
Sabalenka's surprise exit
That on-court context fits the broader tournament picture reported by Sky Sports, where Sabalenka's defeat was one of the headline results as Coco Gauff progressed to the quarter-finals. The result also came alongside another notable upset, with Alexander Zverev also falling in the last 16.
For Sabalenka, the immediate story is not a single stroke but the sudden end of a run in Cincinnati and the way it reshapes the top of the draw. The rally action visible here is typical of the high-tempo exchanges that can swing quickly on a hard court, especially when both players are comfortable taking the ball early.
The next development now sits with the rest of the field, as the tournament moves deeper into the week with the quarter-final places decided around one of the event's biggest names.
Sources & further reading
Tennis.com — Aryna Sabalenka vs Kamilla Rakhimova Round 3 US Open