{"id":637912,"date":"2026-04-29T06:51:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:51:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637912\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T06:51:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T06:51:10","slug":"tennis-wta-mutua-madrid-open-2026-baptiste-gets-past-sabalenka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637912\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, WTA \u2013 Mutua Madrid Open 2026: Baptiste gets past Sabalenka"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hailey Baptiste, the No 30 seed, produced the performance of her life to eliminate world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) on Tuesday evening at the Mutua Madrid Open, saving six match points to reach her first WTA 1000 semi-final and end the Belarusian\u2019s 15-match winning streak.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The match played out in almost surreal fashion. Sabalenka served for victory at 5-4 in the third set and held five match points in a row. Baptiste saved every one of them. She saved the first with an ace, the second with a serve and volley, and produced a drop-shot lob over Sabalenka\u2019s head on match point number five before finishing with a backhand winner to level at 5-5.<\/p>\n

She then broke for 6-5, held, and claimed the title on her first opportunity. \u201cI told my team: when I get my match point today, I\u2019m gonna win the first one that I get,\u201d Baptiste said. \u201cAnd I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

6 breaks and 12 aces<\/p>\n

She broke Sabalenka six times \u2013 the most by any opponent in 2026 \u2013 and served 12 aces, the most recorded in a single WTA clay-court match against Sabalenka in her career.<\/p>\n

Sabalenka was gracious. \u201cShe played brave tennis on those match points,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the first game of the second set I double faulted twice out of nowhere. It felt like that gave her belief. After that, she just started playing more aggressively. What can I say \u2014 well done.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last time Sabalenka had lost after squandering match points was the 2024 Madrid final against Iga Swiatek. It is also the third time she has lost at the 16-match mark of a winning streak \u2013 after Melbourne in 2021 and Beijing in 2024.<\/p>\n


\n \"\"
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\"HaileyHailey Baptiste, Madrid 2026 | \u00a9 Altersports \/ PsNewz<\/p>\n

\u201cA little bit of a revenge tour\u201d<\/p>\n

Baptiste\u2019s rise has been steady and deliberate. Ranked No 88 at this event a year ago, she arrives at a first WTA 1000 semi-final having beaten Paolini, Bencic and now Sabalenka in succession, doubling her career total of top-10 wins in a single week. She will reach a new career high of No 24 on Monday. \u201cA little bit of a revenge tour, I guess,\u201d she said, when asked about facing Mirra Andreeva, the No 9 seed, in the semi-finals \u2013 the Russian having beaten her at Wimbledon last year.<\/p>\n

The defeat leaves the top of the women\u2019s game in a state it rarely inhabits. Not one player from the world\u2019s top five has reached the semi-finals. Sabalenka exits in the quarter-finals; Rybakina in the fourth round; Swiatek, retired with illness in the third; Gauff, beaten by Noskova in the fourth; Pegula, eliminated by Kostyuk in the third. Madrid has eaten its seedings whole.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hailey Baptiste, the No 30 seed, produced the performance of her life to eliminate world No 1 Aryna…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[565],"tags":[64,63,85,747],"class_list":["post-637912","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\/637912","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=637912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}