Resilient Aryna Sabalenka prevails over Marta Kostyuk in rainy Madrid Open clash, sets up Svitolina semifinal

Aryna Sabalenka secures a hard-fought victory against Marta Kostyuk 7-6(4), 7-6(7) and returns to the semifinals of the Madrid Open. This is the fourth time in her last 5 appearances in Madrid that Sabalenka has reached at least the semifinals, having won the title in 2021 and 2023.

This marks Sabalenka's 18th appearance in the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event, winning 8 titles so far. This time, the Belarusian will face the 17th seed Elina Svitolina, against whom she has a favorable head-to-head record of 4-1.

A tight first set, in which both faced several break points. Towards the middle of the set, Kostyuk had already saved six break points against her and had wasted two opportunities. The wind made its presence felt in the Madrid afternoon; three double faults from Sabalenka and several unforced errors gave an opportunity to Kostyuk, while the Belarusian was visibly frustrated by the difficult conditions on the court.

Sabalenka struggled against Kostyuk's solid baseline game to keep the ball in play when Sabalenka took the initiative in the point, forcing the Ukrainian to take more risks, which led to several errors from the Belarusian. This led to the break for the Ukrainian in the 9th game, taking a 5-4 lead.

However, Sabalenka's resilience emerged. After saving a set point against her, the world No. 1 brought out her best tennis to win three consecutive points and secure her first break of the match. The 3-time major champion then wasted a set point at 6-5 and took everything to the tie-break. This time, it was the Belarusian who took the early advantage and showed consistency on her serve to close out the set 7-6[7-4] after one hour and 25 minutes of play.

The Belarusian showed confidence at the start of the second set, securing an early break and taking a 2-0 lead after four chances. However, Sabalenka's joy was short-lived, as she lost her serve in the next game, while Kostyuk leveled the score at 2-2 with her serve.

From there, both were relentless on serve, and short points became increasingly common. Kostyuk was more aggressive this time, looking for good angles to transition from defense to attack. Rain began to appear at 5-5, but the chair umpire decided to continue play.

Under these conditions, Kostyuk committed three consecutive unforced errors, including a double fault, and Sabalenka finished off the break with a forehand winner to take the elad 6-5.  Sabalenka started well on serve with a couple of impressive points, but squandered her first match point on serve. Then Kostyuk showed she wasn't finished yet, winning the break on her second chance and sending it back to a tiebreak.

The Ukrainian was the first to take the lead, but the rain intensified and the tie-break had to be interrupted when she was leading 5-4 and Sabalenka was about to serve. After a few minutes, they returned to the court and Kostyuk got up to three set points, but Sabalenka came back from each of them and ended up securing the victory by 7-6(4), 7-6(7)

Sabalenka advances to the semifinals of a WTA 1000 for the 18th time and will face another Ukrainian: the 17th seed Elina Svitolina, who swept aside the tournament's surprise, Moyuka Uchijima, in the quarterfinals.