![\"World](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Part-GTY-2268364026-1-1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n Miami (AFP) \u2013 World number one Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina on Wednesday booked a blockbuster semi-final at the Miami Open in a rerun of their Melbourne Grand Slam decider. <\/p>\n
Issued on: 25\/03\/2026 – 20:56Modified: 26\/03\/2026 – 05:16<\/p>\n
3 min Reading time\n<\/p>\n
Defending champion Sabalenka held off big-hitting 45th-ranked American Hailey Baptiste 6-4, 6-4.<\/p>\n
World number two Rybakina beat fifth-seeded American Jessica Pegula — runner-up to Sabalenka last year — 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n
They will return Thursday at Hard Rock Stadium — home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins — to fight for a place in the final.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
World number one Aryna Sabalenka is through to the Miami Open semi-finals after a victory over Hailey Baptiste \u00a9 Rich Storry \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/AFP <\/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 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
“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
![\"France's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Part-GTY-2268383626-1-1-0.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
France’s Arthur Fils is through to the semi-finals of the Miami Open after a victory over American Tommy Paul \u00a9 Rich Storry \/ GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA\/AFP <\/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
Pegula, who won last month’s WTA title in Dubai, broke twice to jump to a 4-0 lead and took the opening set in 35 minutes.<\/p>\n
But Moscow-born Kazakh Rybakina was finding her rhythm and broke for a 4-2 edge on the way to forcing a third set, gaining control of the decider with an opening break.<\/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,” said Rybakina, who is seeded third despite rising to No. 2 in the world for the first time this week.<\/p>\n
Fils tops Paul<\/p>\n
In the men’s draw, 28th-seeded Arthur Fils of France saved four match points on the way to a 6-7 (3\/7), 7-6 (7\/4), 7-6 (8\/6) victory over 22nd-seeded American Tommy Paul.<\/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.<\/p>\n
Fils beat Lehecka in the quarter-finals in Doha last month.<\/p>\n
Lehecka ended the dream run of qualifier Martin Landaluce, beating the 151st-ranked Spaniard 7-6 (7\/1), 7-5.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2026 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Miami (AFP) \u2013 World number one Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina on Wednesday booked a blockbuster semi-final at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":206504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,124],"class_list":{"0":"post-206503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-miami","8":"tag-miami","9":"tag-miami-headlines","10":"tag-miami-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}