Soran Cirstea pulled off a huge shock as she sent Aryna Sabalenka crashing out of the Italian Open.

Sabalenka, who lost in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open last month, was defeated 2-6 6-3 7-5 by Cirstea in Rome.

The world number one looked to be on her way to a routine victory when breaks in the third and seventh games saw her win the first set.

Sabalenka also got on top of Cirstea's serve at the start of the second set, though the Romanian responded with three breaks of her own to force a decider.

The pair exchanged breaks to start the third before Cirstea, who is retiring at the end of the year, moved ahead in the fifth game.

Sabalenka got back on serve to level the set at 5-5, though Cirstea fired back with another break and sealed victory with her first match point.

Meanwhile, defending champion and home favourite Jasmine Paolini also lost in three sets to Elise Mertens.

Mertens won 4-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3 in two hours and 44 minutes and will face either Mirra Andreeva or Viktorija Golubic in the next round.

Data Debrief: Cirstea inflicts more pain on Sabalenka

Only Hailey Baptiste (six in Madrid) has broken Sabalenka's serve on more occasions in a WTA Tour match this season than Cirstea here (five).

Since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Cirstea is now the fifth-oldest player to defeat the WTA number one after Serena Williams, Venus Williams, Martina Navratilova and Billie Jean King.

Players ranked outside the WTA top 20 have claimed comeback wins at consecutive events against the number one for just the second time since 1975, after Alison Riske (Wimbledon) and Sofia Kenin (Toronto) defeated Ashleigh Barty in 2019.

And since the WTA rankings were first published in 1975, Cirstea (36 years, 28 days) is now the oldest player to defeat the world number one on clay, claim a comeback win against the top-ranked WTA player, and claim a maiden win against the world number one.