Aryna Sabalenka, the world number one, already knew that the three-time champion in the Caja Mágica (2021, 2023 and 2025) had not managed to maintain her first crown in 2022, when she fell in the first round, nor her second in the final. This Tuesday it was Hailey Baptiste, an unknown until now in the final rounds of the WTA 1000, who finished off the Belarusian (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 who has accumulated the most direct serves in the tournament with 38 -, recovered from a very bad first set, endured and withstood her rival’s rallies and did a lot of damage with her forehand, a blow that works great for her in Madrid due to the altitude of the city and with which she finished off the tennis player from Minsk. “I had opportunities, but I didn’t take advantage of them, and she played very brave tennis. What can I say? Well done,” Sabalenka later elegantly acknowledged at the press conference.
The triumph of Baptiste, a 25-year-old player who currently occupies 32nd place in the rankingit was unexpected because she had never reached such a high level in a WTA 1000 category tournament and because the queen of the circuit had only lost one match this year: but then she had been crowned in Indian Wells and Miami. The victory qualifies the American for her first semifinals, the pupil of Conchita Martínez, superior today to Leylah Fernández (7-6(1) and 6-3, 1h 44m). The other match prior to the final will be settled on Wednesday with the two remaining quarterfinals: Pliskova – Potapova (1:00 p.m.; Teledeporte and Movistar) and Kostyuk – Noskova (8:00 p.m.; Teledeporte and Movistar).
After 11:40 p.m., Baptiste appears at a press conference. The tennis player, who met the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, when she was a girl playing in World Team Tennis – a mixed professional league of US teams – will finally reach the semifinals of a WTA 1000. “It was a very close match. I played against her a few weeks ago and that helped me interpret the game,” she says. “I made sure that if I wanted to win, I had to do it myself and not give her anything. I felt that she was also nervous. My goal was for her to earn those points,” he adds about the way in which he saved six match points, five on serve and one on the rest.
With the help of coach Will Woodall, Baptiste had already shown signs that his tennis, with very direct and powerful hits and two-handed backhands, had been progressing this year. In March she entered her first quarterfinals 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 prevailed over the woman – along with the Czech Petra Kvitova – who has triumphed the most times in Madrid, a territory in which 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.
