Third seed Arina Sobolenko is eliminated in the 3rd round of the 2021 French Open.
The women’s draw will take place without the top three seeds at the French Open, and third seed Arina Sabalenko will be eliminated on Friday with a 4-6 6-2 0-6 third-round loss to Russia’s 31st-ranked Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
After the exits of Ash Barty and Naomi Osaka, the Belarusian was the highest seed remaining this week in Paris. Still, she failed to keep a leash on her unforced errors to lose to the experienced 29-year-old Russian.
Top-ranked Ash Barty retired from her second-round match. No. 2 Naomi Osaka withdrew after the first round, saying she is going to take a break from the competition for mental health reasons.
Sabalenka got off to a rollicking start for a 3-0 lead, but her unforced errors abruptly mounted, and Pavlyuchenkova won six of the next seven games to bag the set.
The 23-year-old hammered a flurry of winners to take four games in a row to win the second set and level the match before Pavlyuchenkova went off the court for medical attention, returning with her left thigh heavily strapped.
The injury seemed to have made no difference to Pavlyuchenkova’s game as she handed a bagel to her opponent in the decider to set up a meeting against either Victoria Azarenka of Belarus or American Madison Keys.
