World number one Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Coco Gauff were sent crashing out of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Friday as Carlos Alcaraz fought off a fierce challenge from Andrey Rublev to reach the semi-finals.<\/p>\n
Top seed and defending champion Sabalenka<\/a> had no answer for Elena Rybakina<\/a>, falling to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-1, 6-4<\/a>.<\/p>\n Reigning French Open champion Gauff<\/a> had 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3<\/a> exit at the hands of seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini.<\/p>\n Spain’s second-ranked Alcaraz<\/a> had his difficulties, but he broke Rublev<\/a> in the final game of a tense duel to emerge a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5<\/a> winner and will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev<\/a>, who brought fifth-seeded Toronto champion Ben Shelton’s run to an end with a 6-2, 6-2<\/a> victory.<\/p>\n Zverev earned a 4-1 lead in the second set as Shelton angrily tossed his racquet on the changeover, and the 2021 champion polished off the win on a second match point. He now has 24 hours to try to get fit.<\/p>\n “I’m not feeling too great now, but I have a day to get fresh,” Zverev said. “I hope to be at 100%.<\/p>\n “I’m not sure what happened. I felt very well, but at the end of the first set, it got progressively worse. But I’ll do all I can to give it a shot tomorrow.”<\/p>\n Alcaraz was broken while serving for victory at 5-4 in the final set against 11th-ranked Rublev, but he found his focus and used his trademark grit to come through three games later.<\/p>\n He sealed the triumph as an emotional Rublev hit an eighth double-fault on match point.<\/p>\n “I maintained the positive thoughts even if I lost focus a bit in the second set,” said Alcaraz, whose five titles so far this year include the French Open as well as Masters 1000 trophies in Monte Carlo and Rome.<\/p>\n Rybakina revenge<\/p>\n Rybakina fired 11 aces en route to a fifth career victory over Sabalenka in 12 meetings.<\/p>\n She avenged a loss to the Belarusian in Berlin two months ago and booked a semi-final meeting with Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek – a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Anna Kalinskaya.<\/p>\n Rybakina was aided by 11 aces as she reached her first Cincinnati semi-final.<\/p>\n “I’m happy with the serve. It was the key today,” Rybakina said. “I served really well.”<\/p>\n “If she had been serving well, it would have been a totally different match,” she acknowledged.<\/p>\n Rybakina has won her last three matches against Swiatek, all played this season.<\/p>\n But Swiatek was feeling confident after downing Kalinskaya in what she called “the best match I played here.”<\/p>\n “I’m happy that I’m progressing during the tournament,” Swiatek said.<\/p>\n Gauff, the 2023 Cincinnati champion, had looked well on her way after a quick first set against Paolini.<\/p>\n But her mistakes caught up with her as she was broken eight times by the Italian, who overcame plenty of errors of her own as well as a twisted ankle suffered early in the third set.<\/p>\n “It was so tough at the start, I was running and trying to put the ball inside the court,” Paolini said. “I started to feel the ball better.”<\/p>\n “I fought for every point and stayed in the match,” added the Italian, who will face Veronika Kudermetova for a place in the final.<\/p>\n