World number one Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Elena Rybakina on Wednesday booked a blockbuster semi-final at the Miami Open.<\/p>\n
Defending champion Sabalenka<\/a> held off big-hitting 45th-ranked American Hailey Baptiste<\/a> 6-4, 6-4<\/a> while Rybakina<\/a> beat fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula<\/a> – runner-up to Sabalenka last year – 2-6, 6-3, 6-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n They will return Thursday night at Hard Rock Stadium – home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins – to fight for a place in the final of the elite ATP and WTA event.<\/p>\n Rybakina beat Sabalenka in a nail-biting Australian Open final in January – the world number one’s only defeat in 2026 – but the Belarusian avenged it with a victory in the Indian Wells final this month.<\/p>\n “We’ve been playing a lot of matches, recently actually, and all of them have been a battle, all of them been a show,” Sabalenka told the Tennis Channel. “I’m super-excited facing her.”<\/p>\n Sabalenka is now two wins away from completing the “Sunshine Double” of Indian Wells and Miami.<\/p>\n Baptiste, playing her first WTA 1000 quarter-final, failed to convert three break points in Sabalenka’s first two service games.<\/p>\n Sabalenka finally broke Baptiste when the American double-faulted on set point.<\/p>\n Sabalenka gained an early break in the second, but Baptiste broke back and held confidently to level at 4-4.<\/p>\n But as she served at 4-5 to stay in the match, the American opened with three straight double faults. Sabalenka pounced, converting her second match point with a blistering return.<\/p>\n Familiar foes<\/p>\n “She really pushed me,” Sabalenka said.<\/p>\n “The rhythm, the heaviness of her shots is incredible. I’m super happy that I was able to hold the pressure and to get the win.”<\/p>\n She’ll now face a familiar foe in Rybakina, who shrugged off a slow start to post her fifth straight win over Pegula – a streak that includes a semi-final victory at the Australian Open and a quarter-final win at Indian Wells.<\/p>\n Reigning Australian Open champion\u00a0Rybakina, a 26-year-old from Kazakhstan, fired 12 aces in beating the American, last year’s Miami runner-up, for their fifth consecutive meeting.<\/p>\n Rybakina improved to 6-3 all-time against Pegula, including an Indian Wells quarter-final and semi-finals of the Australian Open and last year’s WTA Finals on the way to titles.<\/p>\n “It’s always very difficult matches with Jessica,” said Rybakina, who is seeded third despite rising to No. 2 in the world for the first time this week.<\/p>\n “She started playing well, and I was a bit rushing and frustrated, but I’m happy that I managed to bounce back and turn it around in the second set.”<\/p>\n Pegula, who won last month’s WTA title in Dubai, broke twice to begin the match with a 4-0 lead when Rybakina netted a forehand in the opening game and sent a forehand long in the third.<\/p>\n Pegula held twice more to take the first set in 35 minutes when Rybakina netted a backhand, the American making only two unforced errors in the opening set.<\/p>\n Rybakina missed three overhead smashes in the fifth game of the second set but held serve then broke when Pegula swatted a forehand long for a 4-2 edge on the way to forcing a third set.<\/p>\n Rybakina broke Pegula to open the third set and stayed in command to advance after two hours and 15 minutes.<\/p>\n Fils edges Paul<\/p>\n In the men’s draw, 28th-seeded Arthur Fils<\/a> of France saved four match points on the way to a 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 7-6(6)<\/a> victory over 22nd-seeded American Tommy Paul<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fils trailed 6-2 in the third-set tiebreaker, saving four straight match points before prevailing in two hours and 49 minutes.<\/p>\n “It was a dog fight and I never back down from a fight,” Fils said. “Even if I lose, it’s OK, I just fought the best that I could.<\/p>\n “That’s the best result I’ve had in my life so far,” the 21-year-old added.<\/p>\n He reached the semi-finals of an ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time, where he’ll face 21st-seeded Czech Jiri Lehecka<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fils beat Lehecka in the quarter-finals in Doha last month.<\/p>\n Lehecka ended the dream run of qualifier Martin Landaluce<\/a>, beating the 151st-ranked Spaniard 7-6(1), 7-5<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"World number one Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Elena Rybakina on Wednesday booked a blockbuster semi-final at the Miami…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":565630,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-565629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565630"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}