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china open 2026 day 5

China Open 2026 Day 5: Sabalenka Falls as Beijing Draw Breaks Open

By: Jun Pasion |
 October 4, 2026

The China Open arrived at Day 5 with Elena Rybakina already gone.

Then Aryna Sabalenka followed her out.

Twenty-year-old Nikola Bartunkova defeated the top seed 6-4, 6-3 in the third round, removing the second half of Beijing’s leading pair and transforming a tournament that began with two obvious reference points at the top of the draw.

Now neither remains.

Bartunkova broke Sabalenka in the opening game, survived five break points during the first set and completed the upset in 95 minutes.

The result does more than eliminate another favorite.

It changes the question hanging over Beijing.

The China Open is no longer waiting to see whether its biggest seeds can reach the final stages.

It is waiting to discover who takes possession of the space they left behind.

Bartunkova Finishes What Berlin Started

There is another layer to Bartunkova’s victory.

This was not the first time the young Czech had made Sabalenka uncomfortable.

Their earlier meeting in Berlin offered a warning: Bartunkova took the opening set and built a 4-0 lead in the second before Sabalenka escaped.

Beijing produced no escape.

This time Bartunkova struck first and stayed in front long enough to finish the job.

For Sabalenka, the defeat also closes another chapter of her season. Tennis Roundup’s research notes that she has not won a title since completing the Indian Wells-Miami Sunshine Double and will finish 2026 without a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2022.

And for our China Open story, the consequences are immediate.

Watch Bartunkova vs Sabalenka highlights
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First the Ice Fell. Now the Fire Is Out.

Rybakina’s early defeat had already disrupted one of the tournament’s central storylines.

Sabalenka’s exit resolves it.

The Ice & Fire storyline that entered Beijing with Rybakina and Sabalenka positioned as two of the tournament’s defining forces will not reach its anticipated collision.

Neither survived long enough.

That doesn’t leave us without a story.

It creates another one.

With the top two seeds eliminated, the hierarchy established before the tournament is being rewritten on court.

And several players are beginning to occupy the vacuum.

Mirra Andreeva Keeps Moving

Mirra Andreeva remains among them.

The No. 5 seed defeated Polina Kudermetova 6-4, 6-1 and advances to face Daria Snigur. Linda Noskova also moved through emphatically, defeating Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-1 in just 56 minutes.

For Andreeva in particular, that matters.

While Beijing’s biggest names have been disappearing, she has continued moving through the draw.

There is no need yet to declare a new order.

But there is now considerably more room for one to emerge.

Watch Kudermetova vs Andreeva highlights
YouTube video player

And Somewhere in Beijing, the Sun Is Still Rising

China has its own developing story.

Sixteen-year-old wild card Sun Xinran defeated No. 27 seed Cristina Bucșa 6-4, 7-5, becoming the first player born in 2010 to win a completed WTA 1000-level match.

For Tennis Roundup, Sun’s presence carries a callback.

We first met her through the junior Grand Slams: two finals lost, then the US Open title won.

Beijing has now given her something different—a meaningful victory on the senior tour.

And her next scheduled opponent provides an altogether different examination:

Coco Gauff.

Whatever happens there, the significance isn’t that Sun must keep winning.

It’s that Beijing has given The Rising Sun another chapter.

Beijing Has Lost Its Original Hierarchy

This is where Day 5 leaves the China Open.

Rybakina is gone.

Sabalenka is gone.

Bartunkova has delivered the tournament’s latest shock. Andreeva continues forward. Sun is carrying one of China’s emerging-generation stories. Tennis Roundup’s tournament tracker therefore marks Ice & Fire as disrupted, while the new-hierarchy, Andreeva and Chinese-next-generation threads remain in development.

That means there is no reason to rush to crown the beneficiary of the chaos.

Beijing can answer that itself.

For now, the more interesting fact is simpler:

The China Open has lost the players who were supposed to define it.

Day 6 will begin showing us who intends to take their place.

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