MADRID At the Madrid Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas thought his opponent was moving as quickly as a cheetah on centre court. Sebastian Baez, the other player, persevered in chasing down balls to remain in the third-round encounter.
The thirdseeded Tsitsipas came through in the clutch moments, though, earning a 7- 5, 3-6, 6-3 win over the 31stranked Baez on Monday to secure a spot in the last 16 of the clay-court tournament.Tsitsipas won the last four games of the opening set and the last three of the third to advance. Women’s world No. 1 Iga Swiatek dropped her first set of the tournament before securing a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6- 3 win over 16th-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova.
She will be making her first quarterfinal appearance in Madrid against 27th-seeded Petra Martic, who advanced past 11th-seeded Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-6 (1).Swiatek is the first player to reach the quarterfinals or better at eight consecutive clay-court tournaments since Simona Halep made it to 10 in a row between 2016 and 2019.Thirdseeded American Jessica Pegula, last year’s runner-up in Madrid, reached the last eight by beating Martina Trevisan 6-3, 2-6, 6- 3.Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka advanced after ending Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva’s impressive run at the tournament.
Andreeva became the youngest player to reach the last 16 of a WTA 1000 event after upsetting 2021 U.S. Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in the first round, 14th-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second and 19th-ranked Magda Linette in the third. She won 16 straight matches at all levels before falling to Sabalenka, her first Top 10 opponent.
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