Aryna Sabalenka will play Maria Sakkari in the semi-finals of the Mutua Madrid Open. In their respective quarter-finals on Tuesday, both players took a near-similar path en route to victory. In the first quarter-final, the second-seeded Sabalenka was pushed on the backfoot by Mayar Sherif before she regrouped to secure the win.
Sabalenka prevailed 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 against the Egyptian after two hours of play. Sabalenka hit eight double faults. Four of these came in the first set and four came in the first couple of games of the second set. In the second set, Sabalenka went down an early break but was able to get it back.
From that point on, she executed a controlled game to take over the proceedings. The 2021 Madrid Open titlist finished the match by winning 69% of her first-serve points to Sherif’s 50%. She hit 27 winners and had 37 unforced errors.
Sabalenka saved five of nine break points, all of which came in the first two sets while converting six of nine break points on her opponent’s serve. Analysing the match after her win, Sabalenka said, “I just couldn’t adjust for her game, and I was really going crazy.
I’m really happy that I was able to stop myself, to take a little breath and just like start everything from the beginning. Good that I was keep fighting for…
