Aryna Sabalenka, world number two and trophy holder, ended the brilliant run of Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva (43E) 6-1, 6-4 in 1:19 in the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Madrid on Wednesday, just as she did exactly a year ago, a round earlier.
For a place in the final, the two-time winner of the Australian Open from Belarus will face world No. 4 Elena Rybakina, fresh from the title in Stuttgart (Germany) and miraculously on Wednesday.
Rybakina saves two match points
The Kazakh defeated her compatriot Julia Putintseva (50) 4:6, 7:6 (7/4), 7:5E), after saving two match points.
One of the women in form who has five finals and three titles since the beginning of the year (Stuttgart, Abu Dhabi, Brisbane), the twenty-four-year-old Rybakina has not yet lost a set to her opponents in the Spanish capital. .
However, she was long dominated by the 29-year-old Putintseva, who won her only two meetings on the circuit, in Rome in 2020 and Indian Wells in 2021.
First quarter at WTA 1000 for Andreeva…
On the contrary, Sabalenková was experiencing a complicated tournament in the Spanish capital until then: each of her first three matches went to three sets.
Andreeva, who celebrated her 17th birthday on Monday, has been invited to the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event for the first time in her fledgling career.
… Sabalenka stopped again
It was on the Madrid clay that Andreeva revealed herself a year ago. At just 15 years old, she was invited to the main draw and successively knocked out a top 50 player (Fernandez), then two of the top 20 (Haddad Maia and Linette). She was already stopped by Sabalenka, then in the round of 16 6-3, 6-1.
Since then, the young Russian has come a long way. From the door of the top 200, he settled into the top 50 – at 43E place this week, preferably 33rdE in February – and reached two Grand Slam rounds of 16 matches