{"id":14587,"date":"2026-05-10T07:38:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/14587\/"},"modified":"2026-05-10T07:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T07:38:09","slug":"sabalenka-out-of-italian-open-amid-injury-concerns-for-roland-garros-tennis-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/14587\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka out of Italian Open amid injury concerns for Roland Garros | Tennis News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2060Sorana Cirstea defeated world\u2019s top women\u2019s player 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the third round as the latter suffered pain in lower back.<\/p>\n

Published On 10 May 202610 May 2026<\/p>\n

Aryna Sabalenka\u2019s \u200cFrench Open preparations have suffered a setback following a third-round \u2060defeat by \u2060Sorana Cirstea at the Italian Open, with the world number one now looking to shake off an injury before the Grand Slam that begins in less than two weeks.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka needed treatment late in her meeting with Cirstea on Saturday before \u2060she fell 6-2, 3-6, 5-7 for her second defeat in three matches after a quarterfinal loss to Hailey Baptiste at the Madrid Open last month.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

It was a first win over a world number one for the 36-year-old Romanian, who is playing her final professional season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very, very happy,\u201d a beaming Cirstea said. \u201cAryna is an amazing player. I thought I played really well today. I\u2019m working really, really hard. It\u2019s nice to have this result as payoff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was visibly frustrated with her performance on centre court, muttering to herself with her shoulders slumped during an uncharacteristically sloppy display.<\/p>\n

\"Romania'sCirstea celebrates after winning against Sabalenka [Tiziana Fabi\/AFP]<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I didn\u2019t play well from the \u200cbeginning till the end. I started really well, but I dropped the level,\u201d four-time Grand Slam champion Sabalenka said in Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like my body was limiting me from performing at the highest level. She stepped in and played incredible tennis. She didn\u2019t really give me many opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was \u2060a tough one. But I guess we \u2060never lose; we only learn, so it\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka\u2019s disappointing clay court swing follows a stellar run on hardcourts, during which she captured the Brisbane title<\/a>, reached the \u2060Australian Open final<\/a> and claimed back-to-back trophies<\/a> in Indian Wells and Miami.<\/p>\n

The Belarusian said she \u2060now hoped to regain her fitness \u2060in time for the French Open, which gets under way in Paris on May 24, after losing last year\u2019s final against Coco Gauff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d say that probably it\u2019s \u200clike my lower back, connected to the hip, which limited my full rotation,\u201d the 28-year-old added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019re just going to \u200chave \u200csome days off. We\u2019re going to spend it on recovery. That\u2019s the plan for now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the second straight surprise exit for Sabalenka, who was upset by American Hailey Baptiste in the Madrid Open quarterfinals last week.<\/p>\n

Cirstea will next play Linda Noskova in the round of 16.<\/p>\n

Defending champion Jasmine Paolini wasted three match points in a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 loss to Elise Mertens in the third round at home.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old is set to drop out of the top 10 of the women\u2019s world rankings after failing to reach the fourth round of a fourth consecutive tournament.<\/p>\n

\"Belarus'Sabalenka received medical support during the match [Tiziana Fabi\/AFP]Sinner starts strong<\/p>\n

Jannik Sinner got his Italian Open campaign under way by brushing aside Sebastian Ofner 6-3, 6-4 to start his bid to extend a record-breaking run of five straight Masters 1000 tournament victories.<\/p>\n

The world number one delighted fans in the packed centre court stands with a predictably dominant display, which left Austria\u2019s Ofner little room to breathe, even in the breezy atmosphere of Rome.<\/p>\n

Sinner won his 24th consecutive match in one hour and 40 minutes, the 24-year-old barely breaking a sweat to set up a clash with Alexei Popyrin or Jakub Mensik in the third round.<\/p>\n

No Italian man has won at the Foro Italico since Adriano Panatta 50 years ago, and with Carlos Alcaraz out of action, Sinner is expected to go one better than last year when he lost the final to his great rival.<\/p>\n

Such was Sinner\u2019s dominance that he had time to break into a smile when the match was stopped twice in the second set for spectator illnesses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very happy to be back here, it\u2019s always been a very special tournament for me,\u201d said Sinner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to get into a good match rhythm again, even though I\u2019ve played a lot in the last couple of months \u2026 I\u2019m very happy, and now let\u2019s see what\u2019s coming also in the next round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fourth seed Felix Auger-Aliassime suffered a shock second-round defeat at the hands of Argentina\u2019s Mariano Navone, the Canadian losing to his 44th-ranked opponent in straight sets 7-6 (7\/4), 7-6 (7\/5).<\/p>\n

\"Italy'sSinner celebrates after winning against Ofner [Alessandra Tarantino\/AP]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u2060Sorana Cirstea defeated world\u2019s top women\u2019s player 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 in the third round as the latter suffered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14588,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[241,5,36,27,100,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-14587","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rome","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-italy","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-rome","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14587"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14587\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/italy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}