Madrid — Aryan Sabalenka Reached the final of Madrid Open for the second time in three years by defeating Maria Sakkari 6-4, 6-1 on Thursday.
The 2021 champions will face either top order in the Spanish capital inga swotek OR 12th pass veronika kudermetovaWho will play later on Thursday.
Second seed Sabalenka opened with a 3-0 lead, but Sakkari equalized. The 24-year-old from Belarus won nine of the last 11 games, including the last five, to comfortably close out the match.
The Australian Open champion is looking for her fifth WTA 1000 title and 13th career title overall.
Sakkari, seeded ninth, has a 7-22 record in semifinals. It was the first time the 27-year-old Greek was playing in the last four in Madrid.
men’s qualifier aslan kartsev Chinese player reaches his first Masters 1000 semi-final after ending strong run zhang zhizhen 7-6(3), 6-4.
The 121st-ranked Russian saved all three break points he faced in the first set and converted his only chance in the second.
99th rank was Zhang First Chinese man to reach quarter-finals of Masters 1000 tournament By troubling Denis Shapovalov, Cameron Norrie And taylor fritz,
Karatsev is ranked 14th. In 2021, he became the first man to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open in his Grand Slam debut.
He is only the second qualifier to make it to the semi-finals in Madrid.
“I started the year in the top 100, then I dropped and lost a few matches,” he said. “You have to keep going and believe, and I have a team behind me that is always supporting me and believes in me.”
Karatsev’s next match will be the fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas or lucky loser jan-lenard strouff,
