No. 15 seed, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, eliminated the No. 1 seed, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in straight sets on Sunday in round four of the 2012 French Open, 6-2, 7-6(4).
After losing the first set, Azarenka appeared to be getting back on track as she broke to lead 2-0 in the second, but 23-year-old Cibulkova dug deep to run off four games in a row.
Azarenka leveled at 4-4, with the set then going to a tie-break which a pumped-up Cibulkova led from the start to pull off a stunning win.
Azarenka won the Australian Open in January and had been expected to coast past Cibulkova having beaten her seven times out of their previous eight meetings.
After the match, Cibulkova said: “I have never been in the top 10, but I find it easier to play against them. I’m showing all the time my game is good enough to be there and hopefully this year I’ll make it.”
Azarenka replied: “I think
Cibulkova next has a quarter-final match with No. 6 seed, Samantha Stosur of Australia. Stosur defeated American Sloane Stephens 7-5, 6-4 to gain a quarter-final berth.
Stosur leads their head-to-head match up 1-0, with their only meeting coming on hard court.