Aryna Sabalenka needed six match points to do what a top seed is supposed to do in the second round. The world No. 1 fought off a spirited challenge from Australian qualifier Talia Gibson on a windswept Grandstand Court at the Cincinnati Open, closing out a 6-2, 7-6 (7-2) win that took nearly two hours and far more nerve than the top seed would have liked.
Gibson, ranked outside the top 50, saved five consecutive match points in the 12th game of the second set, holding serve again and again as Sabalenka pushed to end it in straight sets. The Australian forced a tiebreaker, where Sabalenka finally converted, closing out the match on her sixth match point with a clean winner.
I'm super tired. This is crazy weather. Talia played great tennis and was more aggressive in the second set. She put more pressure on my service games. I'm glad I stayed calm and pulled it out.
Aryna Sabalenka
A Ranking Race Decided by Inches
The stakes in Cincinnati go beyond the trophy. Sabalenka arrived holding a razor-thin lead over Elena Rybakina atop the WTA rankings, a gap so narrow that a deep Rybakina run this week could flip the top spot before the US Open even begins. Sabalenka, the tournament's defending champion from 2024, is also trying to shake off a fourth-round exit in Toronto last week, her first tournament back on American hard courts since a title run through Indian Wells and Miami in March.
A first-week scare against a 22-year-old qualifier was not the tune-up she wanted. Sabalenka next faces China's Wang Xinyu in the third round, with a potential quarterfinal against Elina Svitolina looming on her side of the draw.
A Season Still Missing Its Signature Win
The near-upset lands in the middle of an unusually turbulent year for the sport's dominant player. Sabalenka reached the Australian Open final for a fourth straight year in January but lost to Rybakina in three sets, then fell in the French Open quarterfinals to Diana Shnaider and in the Wimbledon semifinals to Amanda Anisimova. Her three 2026 titles — Brisbane, Indian Wells and Miami — have all come on hard courts, and none since March, leaving her still in search of the Grand Slam trophy that has eluded her all season.
Gibson, for her part, leaves Cincinnati with her profile considerably raised. The Perth-born player cracked the top 100 for the first time in March and has built her ranking largely through ITF-level grinding rather than headline wins; taking the game's top-ranked player to a tiebreaker on a WTA 1000 stage is by far the biggest scalp she has come within two points of claiming.
What Comes Next
Sabalenka's third-round match is scheduled for later this week as the Cincinnati draw thins toward the weekend semifinals and final. A title defense would tighten her grip on the No. 1 ranking heading into the US Open, which begins in New York later this month and represents her last chance this season to close the gap between her results and her reputation. For now, the tournament has already delivered its first genuine drama, and a reminder that even the best player in the world is not immune to an upset bid from well outside the top 50.
