World No. 1 Victoria Azarenka has joined the growing number of top players to crash out of the French Open after a straight-sets defeat to Dominika Cibulkova on Sunday.
Cibulkova controlled the first set and was a break up in the second before Azarenka launched a comeback, only for the Slovakian to hold her nerve in the tiebreak for a 6-2, 7-6(4) win.
The defeat was Azarenka’s fourth of a season in which she has won the Australian Open and three other titles, while Cibulkova beat the Belarusian for only the second time in nine meetings, not including a walkover in Rome last month.
A host of big names have been knocked out of the women’s draw at Roland Garros, including Agnieszka Radwanska, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki.
Earlier, Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova failed to live up to the standard of her French Open third-round thrashing of Radwanska as she slumped to a straight-sets loss to Italy’s Sara Errani.
Kuznetsova, the 2009 champion at Roland Garros, was routed in the first set but served for the second a 5-4 up before Errani broke back to seal a 6-0, 7-5 win to book her place in the quarterfinals.
For the Italian, it was the second match in a row that she scalped a former French Open champion, after ousting Ana Ivanovic in the third round.
Errani’s opponent at the quarterfinal stage will be German 10th seed Angelique Kerber, who beat Petra Martic of Croatia 6-3, 7-5 in the last 16.
