Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one, already knew that the Madrid Masters is not the most accessible territory to defend the title. The three-time champion at the Caja Mágica (2021, 2023 and 2025) had not managed to retain her first crown in 2022, when she fell in the first round, nor her second in 2024, when a clay-court specialist like Iga Swiatek defeated her in the final. This Tuesday it was Hailey Baptiste, a hitherto unknown player in the final rounds of WTA 1000 tournaments, who ended the Belarusian’s run (2-6, 6-2 and 7-6(6), 2h 30) after saving six match points. The American player, with a very powerful serve —she is the one with the most aces in the tournament with 38—, recovered from a very bad first set, endured her opponent’s rallies, and hurt her a lot with her forehand, a shot that in Madrid runs beautifully due to the city’s altitude and with which she finished off the Minsk tennis player. “I had opportunities, but I didn’t take them, and she played very brave tennis. What can I say? Well done,” Sabalenka elegantly acknowledged later at the press conference.
Baptiste’s victory, a 25-year-old player currently ranked 32nd, was unexpected given how dominant Sabalenka is in Madrid, her favorite clay court, because she had never reached such a high level in a WTA 1000 category tournament, and because the circuit’s queen had only lost one match this year: it was in January against Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final, but she had later been crowned in Indian Wells and Miami. The victory qualifies the American for her first semifinals, where she will face the talented young Mirra Andreeva (8th), Conchita Martínez’s protégé, who was superior today to Leylah Fernández (7-6(1) and 6-3, 1h 44m). The other semifinal match before the final will be decided on Wednesday with the two remaining quarter-finals: Pliskova – Potapova (13.00; Teledeporte and Movistar) and Kostyuk – Noskova (20.00; Teledeporte and Movistar).
After 11:40 PM, Baptiste appeared at the press conference. The tennis player, who met the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, when she was a child playing in the World Team Tennis —a mixed professional team league in the USA—, will finally step into a WTA 1000 semifinal. “It was a very close match. I played against her a few weeks ago, and that helped me understand the game,” she said. “I made sure that if she wanted to win, she had to earn it and I wouldn’t give her anything. I felt she was also nervous. My goal was for her to earn those points,” she added about how she saved six match points, five on serve and one on return.
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With the help of coach Will Woodall, Baptiste had already shown glimpses that her tennis, with very direct and powerful shots and a two-handed backhand, was progressing this year. In March, she reached her first quarter-finals in Miami in the second category of tournaments, where she fell precisely against Sabalenka in two sets (double 6-4). A month later, she takes another step forward and is the one who has defeated the woman —along with Czech Petra Kvitova— who has triumphed most often in Madrid, a territory where only Carlos Alcaraz and Simona Halep have managed to defend the title in the last decade. For the third time, the Belarusian has left the Caja Mágica without being crowned two years in a row.
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