Madrid Open defending champion Aryna Sabalenka dreams comes end after loss with Hailey Baptiste by 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6).
Hailey Baptiste beat World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid Qualrter-final victory to deliver the biggest shock of the tournament so far.
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Baptiste came up with huge serves in several crucial moments and finishing the duel with total of 12 aces and 10 double faults, it helps to beat Belarusian Sabalenka.
The American Baptiste saved five match points at 4-5 in the decider point and a sixth in the tiebreak before handed to Sabalenka.
The World NO.1 Sabalenka is a three-time champion in Madrid Open and reached the final in the Spanish capital in each of the last three editions of the event.
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The Ninth-seeded Russian Mirra Andreeva will be the next challenge for 24-year-old Baptiste after the Russian teenager booked her place in her first Madrid Open semifinal with a 7-6(7/1), 6-3 victory over Canadian Leylah Fernandez.
Andreeva, who celebrates her 19th birthday on Wednesday to continues her impressive form after recently lifting the title in Linz. The young and youth Russian has now improved her clay-court record on this season to an outstanding 11-1.
Before that, Jannik Sinner called on Madrid Open organisers to review the tournament schedule to prevent players from having to compete in matches that finish late into the night.
Playing in the unusual time like 11:00 am opening slot, Sinner defeated Britain’s 19th-seeded Cameron Norrie by 6-2, 7-5 to secure his place in the Madrid quarterfinals.
The Italian explained that his early match scheduling on Manolo Santana Stadium was rearranged to allow Jodar, who could be his next opponent, to play later in the afternoon. In this gave Spaniard additional recovery time after his demanding three-set victory over Joao Fonseca, which concluded at 1:00 am on Monday.
Also Read: WTA Women’s Singles Ranking
Jannik Sinner said,
In this Unusual early start,
“It is quite unusual for me. There was a few question if it would be me or Jodar to play at 4. But I think it is right he plays at 4, because he finished very very late.”
“But at the same time, I feel like we need to make some small adjustments in the scheduling of the day. Two matches starting from 8pm is very late. Because you have one day in between and still it is too late.”
“You finish at 1:30am and you need to eat, you need to have treatment so it is very late. But we try to adjust ourselves, our bodies, our minds, so from my side it was a good performance today.”
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