Baptiste Ends Sabalenka’s Madrid Open Title Defence

Hailey Baptiste ended Aryna Sabalenka’s title defence in Madrid on Tuesday and halted the world No 1’s 15-match winning streak with a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) quarterfinal victory to deliver the biggest shock of the tournament so far.

Supersport.com reports that the American saved five match points at 4-5 in the decider and a sixth in the tiebreak before she handed Sabalenka just her second defeat of the year, and her first since the Australian Open final three months ago.

Sabalenka is a three-time champion in Madrid and reached the final in the Spanish capital in each of the last three editions of the event but was unable to shake off the 30th-seeded Baptiste, who peppered her with huge serves and ultra-aggressive groundstrokes to reach a maiden WTA 1000 semifinal.

Baptiste came up with huge serves in several crucial moments – finishing the duel with a total of 12 aces and 10 double faults – and even saved a match point with a bold serve-and-volley approach on her way to a memorable two-hour 30-minute triumph.

Next up for the 24-year-old Baptiste is ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva, who gave herself an early birthday gift by defeating Canadian Leylah Fernandez 7-6(7/1), 6-3 to reach her first Madrid semifinal.

The Russian teenager, who turns 19 on Wednesday, was a recent champion in Linz and improved her clay-court record to 11-1 this season.