Tennis
Hail Baptiste! Top seed Sabalenka stunned by American in quarterfinals of Madrid Open
Twenty-four-year-old Hailey Baptiste stunned World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) in 2 hours and 30 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open on Tuesday night, saving six match points to earn the biggest win of her career. Baptiste’s the first player to beat Sabalenka from match points down since Iga Swiatek did so in the 2024 Madrid final. The victory also snaps Sabalenka’s 15-match winning streak and sends Baptiste to the Madrid semifinals for the first time.
“I played her a few weeks ago and it was kind of a close match,” Baptiste said in her post-match press conference. “I just got broken once in each set. So, I had a better idea of how to play her, and how I should play, adjustments I needed to make. So I think I just went in trying to play my game, still doing the same things that I’ve been doing, but I had a few adjustments I needed to make from the last time we played.”
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It’s Baptiste’s first WTA 1000 semifinal, where she’ll face another Top 10 opponent in Mirra Andreeva. The No. 9 seed advanced earlier Tuesday with a straight-sets win over Leylah Fernandez to reach her first Madrid semifinal.
It will be a chance at a third Top 10 win this week for Baptiste, who defeated Jasmine Paolini in the third round before knocking off Sabalenka. She has doubled her career total of Top 10 wins at the WTA Tour Driven during this run, going from two to four.
It’s Baptiste’s first WTA 1000 semifinal, where she’ll face another Top 10 opponent in Mirra Andreeva. Pic: Tennis Majors
But none are likely to surpass the win over Sabalenka, which caps a rapid rise for Baptiste. She entered the tournament ranked No. 88 at this time last year and now has a Top 30 debut in sight. It’s a ranking more befitting of the performance she produced Tuesday.
Slow start from Baptiste
It was a slow start from Baptiste. She quickly found herself down 4-1 as Sabalenka opened with a torrid serving stretch, winning 12 of her first 14 points on serve. She faced brief trouble in her next service game, saving two break points before holding for 5-2, then broke the American to take the first set in 37 minutes. It was not a sign of things to come. Back-to-back double faults from Sabalenka handed Baptiste the break to open the second set.
“I feel like in Miami I didn’t give her many opportunities,” Sabalenka said in her post-match press conference. “She couldn’t break my serve. Here, the first game, second set, I just double-faulted twice out of nowhere. It felt like that gave her belief. After that, she just started playing more aggressively. She was playing brave tennis. What can I say? Well done.”
Baptiste used that opening as a foothold into the match. Moments later she led 4-0 and held a break point for 5-0. Sabalenka saved it, held, and then broke back, converting her fifth chance in a game filled with forehand winners, backhand winners and even a drop shot or two as she tried to disrupt Baptiste’s rhythm.
It didn’t work. Baptiste responded immediately, running around her backhand to fire a forehand return winner for the break, then striking another forehand winner in the next game to force a decider.
And what a decider it was. Sabalenka broke first for 2-0. Baptiste broke back and led 4-3. Sabalenka broke again and served for the match at 5-4, earning five match points. Baptiste pulled out everything she had. She saved the first with an ace. She saved another with a serve-and-volley. Then came the drop-shot lob over Sabalenka’s head on match point No. 5. Pure chaos, capped by a nifty backhand winner to hold for 5-5.
A crosscourt forehand winner to open the next game, one of many, was well-struck. Baptiste earned a break point with a backhand winner, lost it, then produced arguably the shot of the match: a scrambling get from well outside the court that she somehow turned into a forehand winner for another chance. Sabalenka’s next forehand misfired, and Baptiste stepped up to serve for the match.
The shock was short-lived, as Sabalenka broke back to force a tiebreak. Sabalenka held her sixth and final match point at 6-5 in the breaker, but Baptiste saved it, won the next three points and converted her lone match point to seal the upset.
Andreeva downs Fernandez to reach semis
Mirra Andreeva keeps building on her early success at the Mutua Madrid Open. Three years ago, she caught the tennis world’s attention with a breakout run to the fourth round in the week she turned 16. She backed that up with back-to-back quarterfinal showings in 2024 and 2025.
And now, on her last day as an 18-year-old, the No. 9 seed is into her first semifinal after defeating No. 24 seed Leylah Fernandez 7-6(1), 6-3, saving three set points in the first set.
Fernandez had been Andreeva’s first career tour-level win back at the start of that 2023 run and repeating that result improved Andreeva’s record against the Canadian to 2-1. The teenager advances to her fourth semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above, and first since winning Indian Wells 2025. She also moves into her fourth semifinal of 2026 so far, and third in as many tournaments on clay.
Mirra Andreeva advanced to her fourth semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above, and first since winning Indian Wells 2025. Pic: Mutua Madrid Open/X
Following her fourth-round win over Anna Bondar the previous day, Andreeva had been so drained that she had not done an on-court interview. In contrast, after defeating Fernandez she was in a bubbly mood as she looked forward to her 19th birthday on Wednesday.
Fernandez was bidding to reach her first semifinal at WTA 1000 level or above since the 2021 US Open, and she raced out of the blocks with a clear strategy. Using short angles and drive volleys to superb effect, she raced into a 4-1 lead.
Andreeva managed to get the set back on serve, but an extended delay at 4-3 to Fernandez as a member of the audience required medical attention halted her momentum. On resumption, Fernandez promptly fired three consecutive winners to hold two points for a 5-3 lead. Superb serving enabled Andreeva to escape with the hold for 4-4, though.
At 5-5, Fernandez came up with a brave hold from 0-40 down, saving four break points, three with clean winners, and surged to three set points in Andreeva’s subsequent service game. Once again, Andreeva steadied her game, forcing Fernandez errors with aggressive play to send the set to a tiebreak. Here, Andreeva played her cleanest tennis of the match so far, racing to set point with a return winner, a finely angled pass and a canny lob.
Andreeva wasn’t home and dry by any means, the second set opened with four straight service breaks, but as the finishing line drew nearer, her tennis became more free-flowing and creative. An emphatic backhand winner garnered her a break for 5-3, and another one sealed her second match point a game later.