Victoria Azarenka beat Yulia Putinteseva 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-3 to reach the semifinal at the Miami Open for the fifth time in her career.
Putintseva earned the first break in the first game to open up a 2-0 lead. Azarenka broke serve in the sixth game to draw level to 3-3. Putintseva broke for the second time in the ninth game to take a 5-4.
Azarenka saved three set points on Putintseva’s serve at 5-4. The Belarusian player missed out on two set points at 6-5 before the set was decided by a tie-break.
Both players traded mini-breaks on the first points of the tie-break. Azarenka earned two mini-breaks to win the tie-break 7-4. Putintseva earned an early break in the second game to open up a 2-0 lead. Azarenka broke straight back in the third game for 1-2. Putintseva won four consecutive games including two breaks to win the second set 6-1 forcing the match to the decider. Azarenka broke twice in the fourth and sixth games to open up a 5-1 lead. Putintseva saved a match point at 5-2 and held for 5-3, but Azarenka served out the win on her second match point.
Azarenka is now a win away from her fourth Miami Open final and her first since she completed the Sunshine Double in 2016, when she won in Indian Wells and Miami in 2016.
Azarenaka will face the winner of the quarter final match against Maria Sakkari and Elena Rybakina.
Azarenka is playing the Miami Open for the 15th in her career. She won this tournament in 2009, 2011 and 2016. The former world number 1 has achieved 43 match wins in Miami. She is fifth most successful player in the history of this tournament. Only Serena Williams (76), Venus Williams (76), Stefanie Graf (59) and Gabriela Sabatini (45) won more matches than Azarenka.
Azarenka has won ten WTA 1000 titles since 2009. Only Simona Halep (29) and Serena Williams (26) have reached more WTA 1000 semifinals than Azarenka (24).
Azarenka has extended her winning streak to 3-0 in her head-to-head matches against Putintseva. In their previous meetings Azarenka beat Putintseva in a match tie-break at Melbourne Grampians Trophy in 2021 and and won 7-5 in the third set at Doha 2022.
