MADRID, Spain – Kazakh player and world No. 4 Elena Rybakina qualified painfully for the last four in Madrid, beating 4-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 her compatriot Yulia Putintseva ( 50th) Wednesday in the quarter-final, after saving two match points.
One of the women in form at the moment with five finals and three titles (Stuttgart, Abu Dhabi, Brisbane) since the start of the year, Rybakina, aged 24, had so far not dropped a single set to her opponents in the Spanish capital.
However, she has long been dominated by Putintseva, 29 years old and who had won their only two clashes on the circuit, in Rome in 2020 and Indian Wells in 2021.
Nervous and multiplying errors (eight double faults in total), Rybakina quickly gave in in the first set. Still as inconsistent in the second round, she nevertheless managed to hang on to break in her turn and still win in the tiebreaker.
Again in great difficulty in the third set, all seemed lost for the winner of Wimbledon 2022, trailing 5-2 with two match points for her opponent.
Until Putintseva collapsed. After failing to convert her match points, the 29-year-old Kazakh collapsed, losing five games in a row, and the match after 2 hours 50 minutes of struggle.
Sabalenka as next challenge
Aryna Sabalenka, world No. 2 and holder of the trophy, put an end to the good run of Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva (43rd) 6-1, 6-4 in 1h19, in the quarter-finals.
For a place in the final, the Belarusian double winner of the Australian Open will face Rybakina.
Sabalenka had until then been experiencing a complicated tournament in the Spanish capital: each of her first three matches had stretched over three sets.
Andreeva, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Monday, was invited to the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time in her budding career.
It was on the clay court of Madrid that Andreeva revealed herself a year ago. Invited into the main draw at just 15 years old, she successively knocked out a player from the top-50 (Fernandez), then two from the top 20 (Haddad Maia and Linette). It was already Sabalenka who stopped her in her tracks, then in the round of 16, 6-3, 6-1.
Since then, the young Russian has come a long way. From the gates of the top-200, she moved into the top-50 – at 43rd this week, at best at 33rd in February – and reached two round of 16 Grand Slams (Wimbledon and Australian Open).
Sabalenka has won her last 10 matches in Madrid and she is trying to match Petra Kvitova with three titles in the Spanish capital.
2024-05-01 19:55:00
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