Elena Rybakina saved two match points to beat Yulia Putintseva 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 7-5 after 2 hours and 48 minutes reaching her sixth semifinal of the season and her ninth semifinal at WTA 1000 level at the Madrid Mutua Open.
Rybakina has extended her winning streak to eight consecutive matches. The 2022 Wimbledon champion leads the tour with 30 match wins to only four defeats. The Kazakh player has won 16 consecutive matches on clay. She suffered her last loss on this surface to Anna Kalinskaya in the second round in Madrid in 2022. She won the title at the WTA 1000 in Rome and reached the third round at Roland Garros.
Rybakina will take on either Aryna Sabalenka or Mirra Andreeva in the semifinal, as she bids to reach her sixth final of this season.
Rybakina had never beaten Putintseva in their two previous head-to-head matches but she came back from 2-5 down in the final set to deny her compatriot a first WTA 1000 semifinal.
Rybakina handed two-time champion her first defeat at the Porsche Indoor Grand Prix in Stuttgart in the semifinals before winning the final. The Kazakh player beat Lucia Bronzetti, Mayar Sherif and Sara Bejlek earlier in this edition of the Madrid tournament to extend her winning streak.
Putintseva reached the quarter final at the Miami Open and beat two seeds Zheng Qinwen and Daria Kasatkina to reach the quarter final in Madrid.
Putintseva earned the only break of the first set in the fifth game and served out the first set at love.
Putintseva started the second set with an early break in the third game to take a 2-1 lead. Rybakina broke straight back in the fourth game to draw level to 2-2. Both players went on serve in the next games en route to the tie-break. Rybakina went up a mini-break twice, but Putintseva pulled back on serve both times. Rybakina earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-4 to level the match at one set apiece.
Putintseva saved two break points to hold serve in the fourth game of the third set.
Putintseva broke Rybakina on her third break point of the set and consolidated the break at love in the seventh game to open up a 5-2 lead. Rybakina reeled off the next four games. She won eight consecutive points to break at love and earned three match points. Putintseva saved all three chances but Rybakina earned a fourth match point and converted with a big serve.
“It was a really tough match. I knew it was not going to be easy. I was hoping I would start the match better but I was having a lot of unforced errors. It was not easy to keep coming back and pushing through, but at 5-2 I already left all the emotions and frustrations to just keep playing. The momentum shifted. Yulia started to be a little bit more angry and some mistakes helped me. I am really happy”, said Rybakina.