Aryna Sabalenka was absolutely delighted and thrilled with her stunning Madrid Open comeback win over Elena Rybakina but also admitted that even she was unsure how she managed to pull it off.
On Thursday, Sabalenka made a very slow start to her Madrid semifinal against Rybakina as the Kazakh was 6-1 5-4 up and had a chance to serve out for the match. Just when it seemed that Rybakina would clinch a routine straight-set win over Sabalenka, the two-time Grand Slam champion went on to claim back-to-back breaks and win three games in a row to force a third set.
After escaping losing in straight sets, Sabalenka also managed to win a very tight three-set to complete her comeback after over two hours of play.
Before Sabalenka’s comeback started, Rybakina was controlling everything and the Belarusian was just fighting to survive. At one point, Sabalenka was two points away from losing the match in two sets.
“Honestly, I don’t know how I did it. I was just trying to do my best, trying to fight for every point. I was hoping to have the opportunity to turn the game around, so I’m super happy I got it. I’m very happy because it was a very tough match,” Sabalenka said in her press conference.
“I spent the entire first set fighting against my serve, I couldn’t gain…
