Sara Bejlek stuns top seed Aryna Sabalenka in 4th round at Cincinnati

Aryna Sabalenka is heading into her U.S. Open title defense riding a slump that continued Wednesday in Mason, Ohio.

The top seed was knocked out of the Cincinnati Open in the fourth round, falling 7-6 (7), 6-4 to the Czech Republic's Sara Bejlek.

Sabalenka, a 28-year-old Belarusian, has failed to reach the quarterfinals in her past three events, starting with a fourth-round loss at Wimbledon.

Since winning three of her first four events this year, with her lone defeat coming in the Australian Open final, Sabalenka has made just one semifinal -- which she lost to Jessica Pegula in Berlin.

Bejlek, meanwhile, recorded her first-ever win over a No. 1-ranked player. The 20-year-old couldn't convert a set point on Sabalenka's serve at 5-6 in the first set, then needed three more set points to close out the tiebreaker.

Bejlek fell behind 4-1 in the second set but broke Sabalenka's serve twice while sweeping the last five games.

"I feel incredible," Bejlek said postmatch. "I lost totally my words. I just keep believing, and that was the key today. She played amazing tennis and I was just believing, keep fighting and I was just trying my best and that's it."

Bejlek's quarterfinal opponent will be 20th-seeded Madison Keys, who downed Xiyu Wang 7-6 (3), 6-4 in the fourth round.

Earlier Wednesday, defending champion Iga Swiatek won her ninth straight match without much resistance, beating France's Diane Parry 6-3, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals.

The No. 7 seed actually lost the first game of the match on her serve but then won the next four to take command of the opening set. She similarly fell behind 1-0 in the second but rallied for a 4-1 lead and clinched the victory on her fourth match point.

The six-time Grand Slam champion from Poland was strong on her first serve, winning 71.1% of those points, and opportunistic on Parry's second serve, winning 17 of 28 such points (60.7%).

With this victory, Swiatek has made at least the quarterfinal round for the seventh time in 12 tournaments she's played this season.

"It's always nice to hear that," Swiatek said when informed of this statistic after the match. " ... It doesn't matter if it's a quarterfinal or a second round, I treat every match the same way. But I know my Wikipedia is going to look good. The key is to focus on being present, and that's how you can get to those numbers."

In order to return to the Cincinnati semifinals, Swiatek will have a tougher test in the next round against No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who beat No. 14 seed Russian Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-4. It'll be a rematch of last week's National Bank Open in Toronto, which Swiatek won 6-2, 6-3.

No. 10 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine recovered from a slow start in her 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 triumph over No. 5 Mirra Andreeva of Russia.

Kostyuk didn't manage a single break-point chance in the first set but converted four of six over the final two sets. The win was her eighth of the season against a top-10 opponent, tied with Rybakina and Elina Svitolina for the most this season.

In addition to Keys, three seeded Americans also advanced to the quarterfinals. No. 3 Jessica Pegula needed just over two hours to come away with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory over No. 15 Sorana Cirstea of Romania, while No. 9 Amanda Anisimova took care of No. 6 Czech Linda Noskova 6-1, 6-4 in just 68 minutes. No. 4 Coco Gauff cruised past No. 22 Marie Bouskova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.

--Field Level Media