Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff crash out in Cincinnati Open as Carlos Alcaraz reaches semis

Cincinnati – World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Coco Gauff were sent crashing out of the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals on Aug 15.

Top seed and defending champion Sabalenka had no answer for Elena Rybakina, falling to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-1, 6-4 for the fifth career loss in 12 meetings.

Rybakina avenged a loss to the Belarusian in Berlin two months ago and booked a semi-final meeting with Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya.

Rybakina, the ninth seed, was aided by 11 aces as she reached her first Cincinnati semi-final.

“I’m happy with the serve. It was the key today,” the Kazakhstani said. “I served really well.”

“If she had been serving well, it would have been a totally different match,” she acknowledged.

Rybakina has won her last three matches against Swiatek, all played this season.

But the Pole was feeling confident after downing Kalinskaya in what she called “the best match I played here”.

“I’m happy that I’m progressing during the tournament,” Swiatek said. “I just played my game. For sure, it wasn’t easy. Just happy I was solid and had the intensity to apply pressure.”

Reigning French Open champion and home favourite Gauff had 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 defeat by the seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini.

Gauff, the 2023 Cincinnati champion, had looked well on her way after a quick first set against Paolini.

But her mistakes caught up with her as she was broken eight times by the Italian, who overcame plenty of errors of her own as well as a twisted ankle suffered early in the third set.

“It was so tough at the start, I was running and trying to put the ball inside the court,” Paolini said. “I started to feel the ball better.”

“I fought for every point and stayed in the match,” added the Italian, who will face Veronika Kudermetova for a place in the final.

The Russian carved out a comfortable 6-1, 6-2 victory over France’s Varvara Gracheva to reach the semi-finals in Cincinnati for the first time.

Kudermetova appears to be back to the form that once carried her into the top 10 as she earned her first WTA 1000 last-four spot since 2023.

In the men’s draw, Spain’s second-ranked Carlos Alcaraz had his difficulties, but he broke Russia’s Andrey Rublev in the final game of a tense duel to emerge a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 winner.

Alcaraz will face the third-seeded Alexander Zverev, who brought fifth-seeded Toronto champion Ben Shelton’s run to an end with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Germany’s Zverev earned a 4-1 lead in the second set as American Shelton angrily tossed his racket at the changeover, and the 2021 champion polished off the win on a second match point.

“I’m not feeling too great now, but I have a day to get fresh,” Zverev said. “I hope to be at 100 per cent.

“I’m not sure what happened. I felt very well, but at the end of the first set, it got progressively worse. But I’ll do all I can to give it a shot tomorrow.”

Alcaraz was broken while serving for victory at 5-4 in the final set against the 11th-ranked Rublev, but he found his focus and used his trademark grit to come through three games later.

He sealed the triumph as an emotional Rublev hit an eighth double fault on match point.

“I maintained the positive thoughts, even if I lost focus a bit in the second set,” said Alcaraz, whose five titles in 2025 include the French Open as well as Masters 1000 trophies in Monte Carlo and Rome. AFP, REUTERS