Spain's Sara Sorribes Tormo scored the first massive upset at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday with a first-round victory over top seed and Wimbledon champion Ashleigh Barty.
The rising Spaniard has been one of the stories of the 2021 season so far, and her 6-4, 6-3 win over the world No. 1 sent shockwaves through the women's singles draw, as she handed the Aussie her earliest defeat at a tournament this year.
Sorribes Tormo had no letdown against France's Fiona Ferro in Monday's second round, cruising through to a 6-1, 6-4 victory to set up a third-round meeting against French Open finalist and No. 13 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Here's more on the rising Spanish star.
The Sara Sorribes Tormo File
Age: 24
Birthplace: Castellon de la Plana, Spain
Current Rank: No. 47
Career-High Rank: No. 46 (April 2021)
Best US Open Finish: Second Round (2020)
The Baseline
- Sorribes Tormo has been one of the most improved players in the first half of the WTA season, and has cut nearly 50 places off of her ranking since the start of 2020, even accounting for the COVID-19 pandemic-induced hiatus. Since first debuting as a professional in 2011, Sorribes Tormo's year-end ranking has lowered each season: she ended 2017 inside the Top 100 for the first time, cracked the Top 75 in 2019 and now sits inside the Top 50.
- This year, the Spaniard won her first career WTA singles title in March in Gudalajara, Mexico, beating former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard to take the trophy. She's also reached two more semifinals and a pair of quarterfinals, including her first at WTA 1000-level at the Miami Open where she beat Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady along the way.
- The win over Barty is Sorribes Tormo's second over a Top 10 player in the last 18 months - and both of which have come with "Spain" on her back. With 68 places between her and Naomi Osaka in the rankings last February in Billie Jean King Cup action, Sorribes Tormo surrendered just three games in an emphatic 6-0, 6-3 win to help Spain secure a 3-1 overall victory against Japan.
- While she beat Barty in straight sets in a tidy 94 minutes, Sorribes Tormo has been something of a marathon woman this season: according to the WTA, she has played five of the longest matches of the year to date, winning three of them. Four of those have stretched over three hours, and her 3 hour, 51 minute victory over Italian Camila Giorgi in Rome was the longest match of the year before it was knocked to second last week.
- She and Angelique Kerber combined to play the longest match a Wimbledon in a decade, too: that one was won by the German, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4, in a 3-hour, 19-minute second round.
They Said It!
“It was incredible. I don’t know what to say; I still have goosebumps. It’s amazing. It’s the best victory in my career, for sure. Because of the place, for who she is, because of what the Olympics means to me and because of playing for Spain.” - Sorribes Tormo after defeating world No. 1 Barty, as reported by the WTA.
