Top seed Azarenka crashes out of French Open

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Top seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus crashed out of the French Open on Sunday afternoon losing a fourth round tie 6-2, 7-6 (7/4) to the shortest woman in the top 100, Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia.

Cibulkova, seeded 15th, will play either Samantha Stosur of Australia or Sloane Stephens of the United States for a place in the semi-finals.

Azarenka won the Australian Open in January and had been expected to coast past Cibulkova having beaten her seven times out of eight previously.

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But the little Slovakian, standing 5ft 3in, who reached the semi-finals here in 2009, handled the cold, windy conditions on the Suzanne Lenglen court far better than the tall Belarusian.

After losing the first set, Azarenka appeared to be getting back on track as she broke to lead 2-0 in the second, but 23-year-old Cibulkova dug deep to run off four games in a row.

Azarenka levelled at 4-4, with the set then going to a tie-break which a pumped-up Cibulkova led from the start to pull off a stunning win.

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