SHOCKER! Top-seed Aryna Sabalenka Crashes Out in Eastbourne After Losing to Qualifier Ahead of Wimbledon Championships 2021

Published 06/24/2021, 11:20 PM EDT

Italian qualifier Camila Giorgi took down women’s World No.4 Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday to storm into the semifinals of the Eastbourne International grass-court tournament.

Fighting fire with fire, the Italian took Sabalenka to a tie-break in the opening set before edging out the Belarussian to win it 7-5.

The 23-year-old Belarussian came roaring back into the contest, bageling Giorgi to win the second set.

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However, the Italian had the last laugh as she secured a decisive break of serve in the final set and held on to her lead to close out the contest in two hours and eighteen minutes.

The Italian was down a break in both the first and third sets but showed exemplary grit and fight to break back and eventually come out a winner.

Aryna Sabalenka hit more winners, Camila Giorgi less unforced errors,

The win took Giorgi to her first semi-final since WTA Palermo 2020. It will also be her first last four appearance at a WTA 500 event since Tokyo in 2018.

While Giorgi hit 23 winners to Sabalenka’s 29, the Italian fared way better when it came to counting back their unforced errors.

The Italian had 34 unforced errors to her name, while the Belarussian tallied 43.

However, for the large part of the match, the match was on balance with neither player seeming to hold an edge over the other.

Sabalenka squandered a 4-2 lead in the opening set

Sabalenka raced to a 4-2 lead in the opening set before the Italian fought back into the contest and restored parity to the scoreline. The set was eventually decided by way of a tiebreak.

The Italian will next face Estonian Anette Konteveit in the semi-final, who was on the brink of elimination against qualifier Viktorija Golubic before storming to progress to the last four.

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The Estonian saved a match point to turn the tables on her opponent in the end.

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A runner-up in 2018, Sabalenka’s exit at Eastbourne will raise some concerns for her form on grass ahead of Wimbledon.

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Priyabrata Chowdhury is a tennis author for EssentiallySports. He has been a print journalist for a decade, producing news pages for leading national dailies such as the Hindustan Times and The New Indian Express. His passion for sports eventually drove him to tennis writing.

SHOCKER! Top-seed Aryna Sabalenka Crashes Out in Eastbourne After Losing to Qualifier Ahead of Wimbledon Championships 2021

Aryna Sabalenka hit more winners, Camila Giorgi less unforced errors,

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Sabalenka squandered a 4-2 lead in the opening set