Elena Rybakina, the former champion of Wimbledon, defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka to earn her place in the semifinals of the grass in Berlin on Friday, saving four match points.
Sabalenka resurrected to reach her eighth semi-final of the season after falling behind to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-2 in the final-set tie-break, earning six straight points.
Next, she travels to Marketa Vondrousova, the 2023 champion tennis player, who defeated Ons Jabeur from Tunisia 6-4, 6-1 earlier on Friday.
“Elena, she’s a great player, and we’ve had a lot of difficult battles,” said one participant. “I have no idea how I was able to get those final points.” In all fairness, Sabalenka, who currently leads 7-4 in meetings with the Kazakh, believes she has been lucky.
“I’ve been playing games a long time ago when I was just starting, and I remember when I won a lot of matches with match points down,” I recall. Not long ago, I thought it had been a while since I’ve made a crazy comeback, and here I am.
“It’s amazing to win games like that,” he said, “and I’m proud of how I stayed.” I was trying until the very end, fighting.
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The three-time Grand Slam champion gave up the momentum and gave way to Rybakina in the third set after winning in a tiebreak.
In the final set, Sabalenka had a 5-4 lead with serve, but the Kazakh, the world number 11, was forced to come back and force the tie-break.
Sabalenka scored her first match point with a powerful assist, sealing the deal five points later (8-6).
She will square off against Vondrousova, who returned from a break in Wimbledon on Saturday and placed her in the 164th place world.
Vondrousova’s first last-four appearance since Stuttgart in April 2024 will be here.
In a repeat of their 2023 Wimbledon final, which the Czechs won, Vondrusova won.
Both players have experienced injuries and have fallen significantly in rankings since finishing in the top 10 last year.
After losing 6-1 in the first set to Spanish opponent Paula Badosa, China’s Wang Xinyu, who had previously defeated French Open champion Coco Gauff on Thursday, retired to reach the semi-finals.
Wang will face Liudmila Samsono in the semi-finals after the Russian, who is 20th in the world, continued to excel on the grass.
She defeated American Amanda Anisimova of the United States 6-1, 6-1 in just 57 minutes after already defeating defending champions Jessica Pegula and Naomi Osaka this week.
Source: Channels TV
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