Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk forced world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka into a tiebreaker in both sets of their Mutua Madrid Open quarterfinal on Wednesday, but the top-seeded Sabalenka of Belarus prevailed 7-6 (4), 7-6 (7).
Sabalenka required two hours, 32 minutes to subdue the 24th-seeded Kostyuk as she won just four more points (110-106) on the clay. They had to deal with a brief rain delay during the second set’s tiebreaker — with Sabalenka trailing 5-4 — while waiting for the roof to close. Sabalenka saved a set point once play resumed and found a way to prevail.
“I think the end of both sets were pretty tough,” Sabalenka said. “I think the whole match, I was handling myself because of the conditions. It wasn’t about tennis, it was just about the way you can handle yourself and the way you can focus on yourself. That’s what I mean by handling myself.
“Because I think in those conditions anyone can win, so it’s nothing about tennis.”
Sabalenka will face 17th-seeded Elina Svitolina in the semifinals as the Ukraine native needed just 52 minutes to knock out Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima, 6-2, 6-1, in the WTA 1000 event.
The other semifinal will feature a showdown between No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 4 Coco Gauff. Swiatek struggled in the first set of her quarterfinal match against fifth-seeded Madison Keys — losing three of four break points — before rallying for a 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph.
“Honestly, it was one of the weirdest matches I’ve ever played,” Swiatek told the crowd after her match. “I didn’t feel like [the first set] was that bad. I felt the ball well — it just went super long. I tried to play it a bit shorter and, with some mistakes by Maddy, the momentum changed in the end.”
Gauff didn’t have an easy time with No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. Trailing 5-4 in the first set, the 21-year-old American fought off two set points and rallied to claim a 7-5, 6-1 triumph over the 18-year-old Russian. Their combined age of 39 made it the youngest quarterfinal matchup in a WTA 1000 quarterfinal since the 2009 Indian Wells tournament.
If Sabalenka and Swiatek take care of business in the semis, they will meet for the Madrid Open title for the third consecutive year. It would be the first time this has happened since the WTA introduced Tier I tournaments in 1990.
–Field Level Media
