{"id":612292,"date":"2026-05-30T16:10:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:10:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612292\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:10:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:10:08","slug":"kasatkina-overpowered-by-sabalenka-to-end-australias-french-open-hopes-french-open-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612292\/","title":{"rendered":"Kasatkina overpowered by Sabalenka to end Australia\u2019s French Open hopes | French Open 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s lukewarm challenge at a boiling French Open<\/a> is over after Daria Kasatkina was beaten 6-0, 7-5 by the world No 1, Aryna Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina became the last of Australia\u2019s 13 singles contenders to bite the red dust before the end of the first week, a battling fightback almost inevitably denied by Sabalenka, who will face Naomi Osaka in the last 16.<\/p>\n

Along with the boilovers created by Adam Walton and Kim Birrell and one improbable comeback win by the luckless Thanasi Kokkinakis, Kasatkina\u2019s resurgence after a troubled year has been one of the bonuses of a tough Aussie week at Roland Garros.<\/p>\n

She made it to Saturday as the last Australian standing at the French Open for the second successive year, after Alex de Minaur\u2019s desperately disappointing four-set capitulation to Jakub Mensik, also in the third round, the day earlier.<\/p>\n

But an outing against the four-time grand slam champion Sabalenka on Court Suzanne-Lenglen always looked to be a fight too far for the country\u2019s most high-profile tennis import as Kasatkina battled in vain before falling 6-0 7-5.<\/p>\n

On the last day of the seven-day European heatwave \u2013 with temperatures forecast to drop significantly on Sunday \u2013 Kasatkina had promised to take the fight to the Belarusian but Sabalenka, who went in holding a 7-2 head-to-head advantage, began with the sort of searing form that matched the weather.<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka hit 37 winners in her fourth-round victory. Photograph: Lionel Hahn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The last time they\u2019d met at Roland Garros six years ago, when Kasatkina was competing as a Russian, the match had ended with Sabalenka whitewashing her friendly foe with a 6-0 set. She began as if they\u2019d just left off, seemingly hammering winners at will \u2013 16 in the first set that ended in a familiar scoreline.<\/p>\n

Kasatkina simply couldn\u2019t cope with her opponent\u2019s irresistible power and accuracy on Court Suzanne-Lenglen, but Sabalenka had expected a fight from a clever all-court player she had described as \u201camazing\u201d. She got one in the second stanza, the world No 53 breaking the Sabalenka serve to move into a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

It was fleeting, though, as the four-times grand slam champion immediately hit back and then held the initiative, only for Kasatkina to use all her wiles to stay in the hunt. At 5-5, she looked to have a glimmer of a chance at 0-30 when her loopy forehand returns caused some concern for last year\u2019s beaten finalist.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka regrouped, and then got lucky at the start of the fateful final game. The top seed got a net cord that plopped over stone dead, and then Kasatkina double-faulted, paving the way for Sabalenka to smash a 37th winner en route to a 76-minute win, her 100th as a world No 1, and a blockbuster meeting with Osaka.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s lukewarm challenge at a boiling French Open is over after Daria Kasatkina was beaten 6-0, 7-5 by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-612292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}