{"id":848659,"date":"2026-08-09T02:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848659\/"},"modified":"2026-08-09T02:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:52:12","slug":"alexandrova-thorn-in-sabalenkas-side-drops-the-world-no-1-in-toronto-tennis-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/848659\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandrova, Thorn in Sabalenka\u2019s Side, Drops the World No.1 in Toronto \u2013 Tennis Now"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A tough season for Ekaterina Alexandrova just got a lot better. She earned a hard-fought win over world No.1 Aryna Sabalenka on Saturday night in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>Ekaterina Alexandrova has been a thorn in Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s side ever since they first met in 2017. In 2026, she\u2019s still causing problems for the world No.1.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/tennisexpress.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\" noreferrer noopener nofollow\"><img loading=\"lazy\" data-lazyloaded=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"610\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Pro-Player-Gear-610X150-03.jpg\" alt=\"tennis express pro player gear\" class=\"wp-image-54451\"  data-\/><\/a>tennis express pro player gear<\/p>\n<p>The Russian produced a barrage of winners and squeezed through a hard-fought battle, 7-6(3) 4-6 6-4, to improve to 5-5 lifetime against Sabalenka on Saturday night at the National Bank Open in Toronto.<\/p>\n<p>The victory marks Alexandrova\u2019s third career win over a reigning world No.1. She is the second woman to defeat a world No.1 at the Canadian Open this century, along with Venus Williams, who defeated her sister Serena in 2014.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Alexandrova had two break points to take a 4-2 lead in the second set, but when she couldn\u2019t convert, Sabalenka reeled off four of the final five games to level the match at a set apiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just tried to play every single point as if it was the last one, because with her, you don\u2019t get a lot of chances during the matches,\u201d Alexandrova said. \u201cI had a lot today, but I couldn\u2019t realize all of them, but honestly, I was trying not to think about about the score.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"adslot inline-ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisexpress.com\/womens-racquets?utm_source=tennisnow&amp;utm_medium=article_ad&amp;utm_campaign=inarticle_racquets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tennis Express<\/p>\n<p>Grass-Court RacquetsThe frames the pros swing<\/p>\n<p>Shop racquets \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m super happy that I could win because after the second set, I thought she already passed me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The pair traded breaks in the third and it was Alexandrova who scored the final break with Sabalenka serving to stay alive.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>She had her first match point with Sabalenka serving at 4-5, 30-40, but it was saved by a magnificent second serve that hopped off the court and eluded Alexandrova\u2019s backhand for an ace.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A second match point soon came, as Sabalenka pushed a forehand down the line long.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Another ace was Sabalenka\u2019s reply, in the same spot, this time a first serve.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But a third match point, earned when Sabalenka yanked a crosscourt backhand wide of the tramline, proved to be the trick.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The hard-fought battle ended when Sabalenka double-faulted at the two hour and 30-minute mark.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Sabalenks drops to 38-7 on the season, while Alexandrova improves to 14-18.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"adslot inline-ad\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tennisexpress.com\/womens-tennis-apparel?utm_source=tennisnow&amp;utm_medium=article_ad&amp;utm_campaign=inarticle_apparel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Tennis Express<\/p>\n<p>Wimbledon WhitesOn-court apparel, shipped fast<\/p>\n<p>Shop apparel \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Chris Oddo. Chris Oddo is a freelance sportswriter, podcaster, blogger and social media marker who is a lead contributor to Tennisnow.com. He also writes for USOpen.org, Rolandgarros.com, BNPParibasOpen.com, TennisTV.com, WTAtennis.com and the official US Open program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A tough season for Ekaterina Alexandrova just got a lot better. She earned a hard-fought win over world&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-848659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=848659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}