World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and No. 3 Jessica Pegula suffered surprise fourth-round defeats Saturday at the Toronto Masters, sending two of the tournament's top seeds out in the same round.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Sabalenka suffered a blow to her preparations for a tilt at a third consecutive US Open title, beaten 7-6 (7/3), 4-6, 6-4 by Russian 16th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
"I wasn't trying to think about the score or anything like beating number one," said Alexandrova after ousting the Belarusian in 2 hours 29 minutes.
"I was just trying to do my best. I just tried to play every single point as if it was the last one because with her, you don't get a lot of chances during the match," Alexandrova said.
"I had a lot today, but I couldn't realize some of them. I'm super happy that I could win because after the second set, I thought (winning) was already past me," she added.
