DUBAI: World number one Aryna Sabalenka slumped to a 6-3, 6-2 loss against Denmark’s Clara Tauson in the last 16 of the Dubai Championships on Wednesday, as Jasmine Paolini’s title defense came to a painful end.
Sabalenka, who beat the 38th-ranked Tauson on her way to last month’s Australian Open final, suffered a second straight premature exit after losing in her opening match in Qatar a week ago.
Tauson broke Sabalenka’s serve six times and the Dane will go on to play Czech youngster Linda Noskova, who knocked out fifth seed Jessica Pegula in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.
The 22-year-old Tauson beat Noskova in the first round of the Australian Open. She also won the title in Auckland at the start of January and made the semifinals in Linz earlier this month.
Noskova will have her shot at revenge on Thursday after beating Pegula 6-3, 7-6 (10/8).
Defending champion Paolini suffered an ankle injury and was dumped out by Sofia Kenin as the fourth seed from Italy lost 6-4, 6-0 in just over an hour.
Kenin, the world number 27, raced to a 5-2 lead in the opening set before closing the door on a Paolini fightback.
Any hopes Paolini had of forcing the match to a deciding set were undone when she took a bad fall early in the second set.
Rolling over her right ankle mid-rally she played on, but was obviously suffering, and in tears.
This was Kenin’s first win over a top-five player since her victorious title run at the 2020 Australian Open.
Kenin’s reward for defeating last year’s Wimbledon and French Open finalist was a quarter-final date with Elena Rybakina after the Kazakh sixth seed overcame a tight battle with Paula Badosa 4-6, 7-6 (10/8), 7-6 (7/2).
Paolini’s loss came after a tricky start to her title defense on Tuesday.
She had reached match point before rain forced the players off the court. Over four hours later, the world No.4 returned to win the final point, beating German qualifier Eva Lys 6-2, 7-5.
Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen suffered a similar fate to Paolini, the Chinese seventh seed beaten in three sets by Kenin’s fellow American, Peyton Stearns.
The 23-year-old Stearns, ranked 46 in the world, fought back from a set down against last year’s Australian Open finalist to win the second round tie held over after Tuesday’s rain 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
After a brief break Stearns returned to face 12th seed Mirra Andreeva in the last 16 where her Dubai run ended, losing 6-1, 6-1 to the young Russian.
Waiting for Andreeva in the quarter-finals is second seed Iga Swiatek.
The Pole, beaten in the Australian Open semifinals last month, won the last eight games to beat Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska 7-5, 6-0.
American eighth seed Emma Navarro, made it into the last 16 after defeating this month’s Abu Dhabi Open winner Belinda Bencic 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-3.
Earlier Wednesday tennis officials said Emma Raducanu was targeted by “a man who exhibited fixated behavior” after the former US Open champion was reduced to tears on court.
The 22-year-old Briton was down 2-0 in the first set against Karolina Muchova on Tuesday when she approached the umpire, then briefly took refuge behind the umpire’s chair.
Muchova went over to see what was wrong before Raducanu reappeared, wiping away tears with her towel.
The WTA said it would ban the man, who had been sitting in the first few rows of the crowd in Raducanu’s match, after what it called “the security incident in Dubai.”