Aryna Sabalenka on Thursday gave herself an early birthday gift by easing into the Madrid Open final for the second time in three years and then plotted revenge on world No. 1 Iga Swiatek.
The world No. 2 turned 25 yesterday and the Belarusian celebrated in style by breezing past Greek world No. 9 Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1.
Sabalenka, the 2021 champion in Madrid, is to face Swiatek in today’s final after the French Open and US Open winner swept aside world No. 13 Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 6-1.
Photo: AFP
Reigning Australian Open champion Sabalenka is chasing a fifth WTA 1000 title, a 13th career title overall and her third this year.
She will have the opportunity to avenge her straight-sets defeat to Swiatek in last month’s final in Stuttgart, Germany.
“I really want this revenge,” she said. “It would be really great to be able to defeat a player like Iga on clay. In Stuttgart, I was rushing on the short balls, I tried too hard for the winning shot. This time, I played with more patience and waited for the right ball to finish the point.”
Top seed Swiatek has a 5-2 record against Sabalenka, having also won the pair’s three previous clay-court meetings.
In the men’s singles quarter-finals, Jan-Lennard Struff stunned world No. 5 Stefanos Tsitsipas to become only the third lucky loser to reach the semi-finals of an ATP Masters event.
The 33-year-old German, who had lost in the qualifying round before being allotted a place in the main draw, triumphed 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-3.
He was due to face Russian qualifier Aslan Karatsev in the semi-finals.
“It feels amazing. It was a very, very hard battle. I knew before, I needed to perform at my best,” said Struff who, ironically, had lost to Karatsev in qualifying.
The other semi-final would see defending champion and world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz, who celebrated his 20th birthday yesterday, facing Borna Coric of Croatia.
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