WTA Bronx: Camila Giorgi Set For Title Showdown With Magda Linette - UBITENNIS
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WTA Bronx: Camila Giorgi Set For Title Showdown With Magda Linette

Camila Giorgi has twice survived a third set tiebreak this week, and saved four match points just yesterday, but can she claim the title?

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In Friday’s semifinals, Giorgi faced the top seed and world No.18 Qiang Wang.  This match would see a ton of service breaks, with each set consisting of five or more.  They would split the first two sets by identical scores of 6-4. In the third, the 27-year-old from China served for the match at 5-4, and would hold a match point, but Giorgi would save it and break for 5-5.  Camila’s firepower allows her to dictate play more often than not, and she’s continually lifted her game at the right moments this week.

Giorgi would then garner a match point of her own on Wang’s serve at 6-5, but also failed to convert.  In the deciding tiebreak, Qiang gained the early mini-break on the first point with a backhand winner down the line.  But Camila would punish an extremely soft second serve and get the breaker right back on serve. Wang then took advantage of a Giorgi forehand clipping the net, giving her extra time to rip a forehand and regain the mini-break.  They switched sides with Wang leading 4-2.

A few Giorgi errors gave Wang three more match points 6-3, with two of them on Qiang’s serve.  But Wang’s forehand misfired on both of the match points on her serve, and then Giorgi would put away a backhand volley to level things at 6-6.  Camila would again strike some deep and powerful groundies when she needed them, granting herself a match point at 7-6 on Wang’s serve. And Wang would sail a backhand beyond the baseline, sending the 27-year-old Italian into tomorrow’s final in dramatic fashion.

It’s the second final in four weeks for Giorgi, who was stunned in the Washington final by a first-time WTA champion, Jessica Pegula.  Camila saw her ranking fall outside the top 50 last month when her Wimbledon quarterfinalist points from 2018 dropped off her 52-week tally, but she’ll return to the top 50 with today’s win.  In her career, Giorgi is 2-5 in WTA tournament finals, with her most recent title coming last October at the Linz Open.

On Saturday in the first Bronx Open singles final, she’ll face another 27-year-old in Magda Linette of Poland.  This is only Linette’s second WTA-level final in her career, with the last coming four years ago in Tokyo. She lost in that final to Yanina Wickmayer, so a win today would give Magda her first career singles title.  Linette had to qualify to get into this draw, meaning this will be her seventh match in nine days. On Friday, she ousted Katerina Siniakova in straight sets, a day after surviving a third set tiebreak of her own in the quarterfinals against Karolina Muchova.

As much tennis as Linette has played in the Bronx, she may be the fresher of the two finalists.  Giorgi’s semifinal was played later in the day on Friday, and lasted nearly three hours. In their only previous meeting, Giorgi prevailed in three sets, on a hard court in Linette’s home country four years ago.

The first Bronx Open doubles champions were crowned on Friday, with Darija Jurak and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez defeating Margarita Gasparyan and Monica Niculescu in a deciding 10-point tiebreak 10-7.  This is the first title for this team, which was formed just a few weeks ago in Canada.

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Elena Rybakina beats Victoria Azarenka to reach her fourth final of the season at the Miami Open

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Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina beat Victoria Azarenka 6-4 0-6 7-6 (7-2) in the semifinal of the Miami Open to reach her fourth final of the season. 

Rybakina has improved to 4-0 in her head-to-head matches against Azarenka and has a seasonal record of 22 wins to 3 defeats. 

Both players were not able to convert their early break points in the opening set. 

Azarenka saved four break points in the first game to hold serve after three deuces. Rybakina fended off two break points in the sixth game. 

Rybakina earned the first break of the match in the seventh game to take a 4-3 lead. Azarenka earned a break point in the eighth game, but she was not able to convert it. Rybakina served out the first set with a hold at love. 

Azarenka broke three times to race through to a bagel win in the second set. The three-time Miami Open champion dropped just two points on serve in the second set. She made a double faul on one of these points. 

Rybakina stopped Azarenka’s seven-game streak by holding serve to draw level to 1-1 in the third set. Rybakina earned her fifth break point in the fifth game with a backhand pass, as Azarenka was serving at 2-2, and converted her chance to take a 3-2 lead, when Azarenka hit a backhand into the net. Rybakina consolidated the break by holding serve to take a 4-2 lead. Rybakina fended off a break point with her 10th ace, as she was serving for the match at 5-4, but Azarenka earned a second break point after a long baseline exchange. Azarenka converted her break point when Rybakina volleyed into the net. Rybakina earned three mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-2. 

Rybakina won two titles in Brisbane and Abu Dhabi and reached her first WTA 1000 final of the season in Doha on hard court. 

Last year the Kazakh player won in Indian Wells and was a win away from winning the Sunshine Double in the Miami Open final, where she lost to Petra Kvitova 7-6 (16-14) 6-2. 

Rybakina is just the third player in the last ten years to reach back to back Miami finals following Serena Williams and Ashleigh Barty. 

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Alexander Zverev beats Fabian Maroszan to reach the semifinal in Miami

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Alexander Zverev beat Fabian Maroszan 6-3 7-5 to reach his third semifinal of the 2024 season at the Miami Open. 

Zverev will face the winner of the quarter final match between this year’s Indian Wells champion Carlos Alcaraz and 11 seed Grigor Dimitrov. Zverev reached the final at the Miami Open in 2018. 

Should Alcaraz beats Dimitrov, the Spanish player would meet Zverev for the second time this month. Alcaraz beat Zverev 6-3 6-1 in the quarter finals at Indian Wells. 

Zverev won 80% of his first serve points and saved the only two break points he faced. The German player committed just 10 unforced errors to Maroszan’s 23. 

Zverev converted his fourth break point in the third game of the first set and held serve at 15 to take a 3-1 lead. The 2021 German player saved a break point in the sixth game keepin a one-break lead. He closed out the first set 6-3 with a double break at 30.

Maroszan saved a break point in the second game of the second set to hold serve at love for 1-1. Zverev fended off a break point in the fifth game to hold serve after two deuces for 3-2. Both players held on serve until the 12th game. Zverev was leading 6-5 when Maroszan served to send the second set into the tie-break. The Hungarian player earned two game points, but he did not convert his chances. 

Zverev broke serve after two deuces on his first match point to seal the second set 7-5. 

“I love Miami. I always said that. I am happy to be back in these late stages of these tournaments, playing the best players in the world. I think there are only those left. I am looking forward to the challenge. If Maroszan keeps playing like that, he’s going to rise up the rankings very quickly. He always rushes you. I think when all players feel like they are in control, they feel like they manage the match and play the match a little bit in their own favour and against him, it’s not possible. That’s why he has such a great top 10 record of 4-2. He is an unbelievable player”, said Zverev. 

Maroszan was playing in his second quarter final at Masters 1000 level after reaching this stage in Shanghai in 2023. The Hungarian player has moved up 19 spots to a career-high of number 38 in the ATP Live Rankings. He will become the Hungarian player to reach the top 50 in the ATP Ranking. Earlier this tournament he claimed two top 10 wins over Holger Rune and Alex De Minaur. 

Zverev is aiming his sixth Masters 1000 title and his first trophy in the series since Cincinnati 2021. 

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Ekaterina Alexandrova upsets Jessica Pegula to reach the semifinal at the Miami Open

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World number 16 Ekaterina Alexandrova came back from one set down to upset Jessica Pegula 3-6 6-4 6-4 in 1 hour and 58 minutes reaching the semifinals at the Miami Open.

Alexandrova has drawn level to 1-1 in her head-to-head matches against Pegula. 

Alexandrova beat top 5 players In back-to-back matches for the first time in her career with her wins over world number 1 Iga Swiatek and Pegula. In her previous two rounds of the Miami Open she had defeated Donna Vekic and Anastasya Pavlyuchenkova. 

Alexandrova also beat 2022 Elena Rybakina in Adelaide last January and has the most wins in 2024 against players ranked in the top 5. She has a record of 6 wins to 17 defeats against top 5 players in her career.   

Pegula won four consecutive games from 2-3 down with two breaks to seal the first set 6-3. Alexandrova fought back breaking serve in the first game of the second set. The Russian player went up a double break in the seventh game to open up a 5-2 lead. Pegula pulled one break back in the eighth game for 3-5. Alexandrova served out the second set at love to force the match to the decider. 

Alexandrova earned an early break in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead. Pegula broke straight back in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3, when Alexandrova double faulted on her fourth break point. Pegula held serve in the seventh game after a fantastic rally, but Alexandrova earned the decisive break, when Pegula went long with her backhand return on the second break point. Alexandrova held serve on her second match point and fell to her knees in joy.  

“It was extremely difficult for me because Pegula played amazing. In the third set, there were sometimes the kind of rallies where I could not understand how it was possible to return that ball, but it always came back. I just tried to play every single point like I knew she was going to be everywhere, so I need to do something and I was trying to wait and use any opportunities that I got”, said Alexandrova. 

Alexandrova set up a semifinal against Danielle Collins, the last remaining US player. It will be the first head-to-head match between Alexandrova and Collins.  

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