World number one Aryna Sabalenka was staring at one of the most embarrassing defeats of her career on Thursday evening in Berlin. Down a set and 4-0 in the second, she looked nothing like the dominant force who had collected four Grand Slam titles on hard courts. What followed was a masterclass in sheer willpower.
A nightmare start at the Berlin Open
Czech qualifier Nikola Bartunkova arrived on court as world number 62, but you would never have guessed it from her opening games. Her flat, penetrating groundstrokes and thunderous return of serve simply overwhelmed Sabalenka, who was irritable, error-prone and barely a presence on her own delivery. The Belarusian dropped the first set 6-2 without ever really threatening.
The second set began even worse. Bartunkova raced to a 4-0 lead, playing with the freedom and aggression of someone who had absolutely nothing to lose. At one point, a Sabalenka serve clipped the frame of her racquet and floated well beyond the baseline, drawing audible gasps from the crowd. Four set points came and went as the top seed scrambled to stay alive, saving them with desperate serving at the critical moment, only for Bartunkova to blast two enormous first serves past her to close out the opener.
Sabalenka described the feeling with brutal honesty afterward. “I did not know what to do. I was thinking woah, that’s how it feels to play against me,” she admitted. “Any ball I would give her she would smack it for a winner. What a player, a future superstar for sure.” It was a rare moment of vulnerability from a champion more accustomed to being the one doing the overwhelming.
For many observers, the performance triggered uncomfortable memories of her shock French Open quarter-final exit just weeks earlier, when Diana Shnaider overturned a 6-3, 4-1 deficit to eliminate her. Questions about Sabalenka’s mental resilience under pressure had started circulating before this match even began.
How Sabalenka battles back from the brink
Something shifted midway through the second set. After holding to love to finally get on the scoreboard, Sabalenka found a gear that had been completely absent for over an hour. She reeled off five consecutive games, rediscovering the aggressive rhythm that makes her so dangerous on any surface. She took the tie-break convincingly, 7-2, levelling the match at one set apiece.
The deciding set was anything but straightforward. Sabalenka grabbed breaks of serve twice, only to have Bartunkova immediately fight back both times. The momentum kept swinging. Here is how the key turning points unfolded across all three sets :
- Set 1 (6-2 to Bartunkova) : Sabalenka lost serve multiple times, her flat groundstrokes finding the net or sailing long under pressure.
- Set 2 tie-break (7-2 to Sabalenka) : After saving four set points earlier, she dominated the breaker with controlled aggression and first-serve percentage well above her set average.
- Set 3, 5-4 up : Two match points slipped by before a trademark forehand cross-court winner sealed the 2-6, 7-6(2), 6-4 victory.
“I just tried to bring this little tiger inside of me and fight for this match,” Sabalenka said. It sounds like a cliché, but anyone who watched those final games understood exactly what she meant. Pure grit, nothing else.
Her next opponent in the semi-finals is Jessica Pegula, currently ranked fourth in the world, who edged past Madison Keys in a tightly contested 7-6(5), 7-6(8) match. Pegula’s consistency from the baseline and composure in big moments make her a genuinely dangerous draw at this stage.
Bartunkova’s rising trajectory and Sabalenka’s road to Wimbledon
It would be wrong to reduce Bartunkova to a footnote in this story. The 20-year-old Czech has had a remarkable breakthrough season by any measure. She defeated then-world number 10 Belinda Bencic at the Australian Open earlier this year, and reached the runner-up position at the grass-court tournament in Birmingham just weeks ago. Her numbers on grass are genuinely impressive for someone at her ranking level.
| Player | Current ranking | 2026 grass record | Notable result |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aryna Sabalenka | 1 | SF Berlin | 4× Grand Slam champion |
| Nikola Bartunkova | 62 | Final Birmingham | Beat Bencic at AO 2026 |
| Jessica Pegula | 4 | SF Berlin | Beat Keys 7-6, 7-6 |
Meanwhile, the injury situation around Sabalenka deserves serious attention. She spent several changeovers icing her right shoulder, the same shoulder that ruled her out of Wimbledon two years ago. She reached the semi-finals at SW19 last year, and the grass Grand Slam is clearly a target she has not given up on. All four of her major titles have come on hard courts, and both Wimbledon and Roland Garros remain genuinely unfinished business.
Elsewhere, Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion and current world number two, withdrew from the Bad Homburg Open with a hip problem, adding another layer of uncertainty to the grass-court season’s final picture. A fit Sabalenka, steeled by comebacks like this one in Berlin, suddenly looks like the most complete threat heading into the fortnight at SW19. Winning ugly, when the game completely deserts you, is sometimes the most valuable skill a champion can sharpen.
