Women’s draw in Tokyo decimated with exits of Sabalenka, Swiatek and Kvitova

After the shocking opening-round loss of world No 1 Ashleigh Barty on Sunday, the women’s singles draw at the Tokyo Olympics lost three more big names on Monday with third seed Aryna Sabalenka, sixth seed Iga Swiatek and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova all going out in the second round,

Former world No 2 Kvitova, seeded 10th this year, started on a good note on Court 5 against Alison Van Uytvanck before the Belgian powered her way through to a 5-7, 6-3, 6-0 win in two hours and nine minutes. The 31-year-old Kvitova has one Olympic medal , a singles bronze from the 2016 Rio Games, to her credit.

Minutes after Kvitova’s loss, third seeded Sabalenka was also out of the Olympics singles event. The Belarusian was defeated in a third set tiebreaker by Donna Vekic. The Croatian scored a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 victory in two hours and 36 minutes to reach the last 16.

Vekic will go on to meet 15th seed Elena Rybakina, a 6-2, 6-3 winner over beat Sweden’s Rebecca Peterson 6-2, 6-3 while Uytvanck meets seventh seed Garbine Muguruza, a 6-3, 6-0 winner over Wang Qiang.

Following these two losses, Poland’s Iga Swiatek became the third major casualty on the women’s side on Monday, going down to Spain’s Paula Badosa.

Badosa won 6-3, 7-6 in one hour and 49 minutes to advance to the last 16 where she will meet Argentina’s Nadia Podoroska, a 6-1, 6-3 winner over Ekaterina Alexandrova.

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