Reilly Opelka sets up a semifinal against Nick Kyrgios in Houston - UBITENNIS
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Reilly Opelka sets up a semifinal against Nick Kyrgios in Houston

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Reilly Opelka reached his second ATP Tour semifinal on clay at the Fayez Sarofim & Co. US Men’s Clay Court Championships in Houston with a 6-3 7-5 win over Dutch qualifier Gijs Brouwer. 

Opelka has extended his winning streak to four consecutive sets after dropping the first set against his compatriot Mitchell Krueger. 

The World Number 18 player converted his only break point in the fourth game to win the first set 6-3. 

Brower went up a break in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Opelka broke straight back in the fifth game to draw level to 3-3. The US player earned his second break in the 11th game to close out the second set 7-5.

Opelka set up a semifinal clash against Nick Kyrgios, who advanced before the start of play, as Michael Mmoh withdrew from the match with a right adductor strain. 

Opelka beat Kyrgios 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in their only previous head-to-head match at last year’s Masters 1000 tournament in Toronto en route to reaching the final where he finished runner-up to Danil Medvedev. 

Kyrgios has reached his first semifinal since August 2019, when he claimed the Washington title. Opelka has reached his fourth semifinal of the semifinal of the 2022 season following Sydney, Dallas and Delray Beach. 

“I am excited to be in the semifinal against Reilly. Someone, who has been playing extremely good for the last couple of years. I am just excited to go out there again in front of the Houston crowd. The key is going to be serving well. We will see. It might come down to a couple of points”, said Kyrgios. 

Christian Garin converted his fifth match point to beat this year’s Indian Wells champion Taylor Fritz 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 6-3. Garin broke twice in the third and eighth games to win the first set 6-2. 

Fritz came back from a break down twice in the second set before winning the tie-break 7-5. Garin raced out to a 5-0 lead in the third set. Fritz pulled one break back in the seventh game before saving three match points to claw his way back to 3-5. Garin saved three break points before serving out on his second opportunity in the ninth game. 

Garin will face John Isner, who beat Frances Tiafoe 6-4 3-6 6-2 to reach his second ATP Tour semifinal of the 2022 season. Isner converted two of his  10 break points. 

Isner earned his first break on his third opportunity in the 10th game to win the first set 6-4. Tiafoe broke in the third game of the second set and saved five break points to hold serve for 3-1. Tiafoe earned his second break in the seventh game and served out the second set on his third set point. Isner earned an early break in the second game of the third set and did not face a break point in his next service games to close out the match in the ninth game. 

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Aryna Sabalenka beats Mirra Andreeva to extend her winning streak in Madrid

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Aryna Sabalenka beat 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva 6-1 6-4 in 1 hour and 20 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium to extend her winning streak at the Madrid Mutua Open to ten straight matches. 

In last year’s edition of the Madrid Mutua Open Andreeva reached the Round of 16 in her WTA 1000 debut before losing to eventual champion Sabalenka 6-1 6-3 

Sabalenka has reached the semifinals at the Caja Magica for the third time in her career. 

Sabalenka is bidding to become woman to win the Madrid Mutua Open title after Petra Kvitova. 

Sabalenka set up a semifinal clash against Elena Rybakina in their ninth career head-to-head clash. 

Sabalenka won five games from 1-1 with two breaks of serve to seal the first set 6-1. The Belarusian player won three consecutive games from 1-2 down to go up a set and a break. Andreeva went up a 15-30 on Sabalenka’s serve in the eighth game. The Russian player then saved two match points in the ninth game to hold for 5-4 and clawed his back from 0-30 down to 30-30 in the 10th game. 

Sabalenka earned her third match point with her second ace of the match and served out the win the win when Andreeva hit the final ball long. 

Sabalenka improved her lifetime record to 16-3 in Madrid and 19-5 overall in 2024. 

Andreeva took out Marketa Vondrousova to win her second top 10 match of the season in the third round before beating this year’s Dubai champion Jasmine Paolini in her next round. “I am super happy with the level I played and with the win .Andreeva is an incredible player even though she is super young. Conditions suit me well, and hopefully I can just keep going the way that I am going”, said Sabalenka. 

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Elena Rybakina saves two match points to beat Yulia Putintseva in Madrid

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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. 

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Iga Swiatek beats Beatriz Haddad Maia in three sets to reach the semifinal at the Madrid Mutua Open

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World number 1  Iga Swiatek came back from one set down to beat number seed 11 Beatriz Haddad Maia 4-6 6-0 6-2 on Manolo Santana Stadium in a re-match of the 2023 Roland Garros semifinal after 2 hours and 29 minutes at the Madrid Mutua Open. 

Swiatek lost her first head-to-head match against Haddad Maia in the first round in Toronto 2022. The three-time Roland Garros champion beat her Brazilian opponent for the third time in a row after her previous wins in last year’s Roland Garros semifinals and at this year’s United Cup in Australia. 

Swiatek broke to love in the fourth game after a double fault from Haddad Maia and saved a break point to consolidate the break with a hold of serve for 4-1. Haddad Maia reeled off the final five games, as Swiatek made 13 unforced errors. 

Swiatek turned around the match by winning eight consecutive games, taking a bagel win in the second set and earning an early break at the start of the third set to build up a 2-0 lead. Swiatek did not face a break point and dropped only 12 points in the second set. 

Haddad Maia broke straight back in the third game to stop the eight-game losing streak. Swiatek broke for the second time in the fourth game and held serve to 30 to open up a 4-1 lead. Swiatek broke for the third time with a pair of heavy forehands to seal the win. 

Swiatek has reached her fifth semifinal in 2024 and the 15th of her career at WTA 1000 level, the most among active players since 2020. 

“I needed to stick to the tactics, because in the first set I started making too many mistakes. I started playing too fast. I just needed to really get back to basics and what I wanted to play today. It took me a while, longer than usual, but I am glad that it happened after the set anyway”, said Swiatek.

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