After a pause for Good Friday, Saturday became a day of upsets at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, where the best 4 players in the world were in quarter-final action at the WTA 500 event, and left only Aryna Sabalenka, the World No 1, the last one standing as Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff all were sent packing.
Overall I felt better with my serve. So that’s what I was happy about, you know, that I managed to pull myself out from, like, serving really bad in the first set. So I just wanted to hold onto it. Yeah, like, I remember, like, it was pretty clear, you know, in the second set, but in the third, like, probably I over-thinked it a little bit in the beginning. But again, I started playing well in the middle of the third set, as well. So I just didn’t use my opportunities to break back after a bad start of the third set. Iga Świątek
Sabalenka, who was playing her first match of the week, won a relatively close first set and then cruised in the second set to defeat Elise Mertens, 6-4 6-1, but Swiatek fell to her nemesis, Jelena Ostapenko, 6-3 3-6 6-2, while Pegula was taken down 6-0 6-4 by Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Gauff was beaten, 6-4 6-3, by Jasmine Paolini.
Of the upsets, the biggest was that of Swiatek, the former World No 1 and undisputed Queen of Clay, who succumbed for the 6th time to Ostapenko, who has a curious hold over the Pole.
The 2017 Roland Garros champion from Latvia’s risky game once again got the better of Swiatek, who seems unable to snap out of Ostapenko’s spell.
It was disappointment for the 5-time Grand Slam champion, who lost to Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals here last year, and has yet to win a title this year.
“Well, for sure I’m happy with the second set,” Swiatek told the media later. “Disappointed that I couldn’t hold my level in the first games of third set, because, I think, for sure, it was important. But, you know, I kept fighting. Yeah.
“I think my head was much more clear, and I was looking for solutions and I found them. Even though I started being a little bit tense, you know, in the first set, I managed to recover well and that was the difference.
“I think today was a tight match, so, for sure, I had my chances to win. Before, like, for sure, like, these matches were different. Like, she went for it, and she was smashing every ball, kind of, perfectly. Today she didn’t, she made some mistakes. I had my chances. I just didn’t use them.”
Ostapenko’s style seems to keep Swiatek off-balance, and the 6-3 6-1 defeat the Pole suffered on the hard court in the Doha semi-final was one of her most one-sided defeats.
No one else has ever defeated Swiatek 6 times, without a loss, and the 27-year-old Latvian is now 12-3 in sets against the Pole.
Iga Świątek took a set off Jelena Ostapenko but could not find the means to beat her on Saturday in Stuttgart
On Saturday, Ostapenko stormed through the first 4 games of the match, and broke Swiatek’s serve 3 times to capture the first set, and although the World No 2 struck back in the second, winning the last 3 games, the Latvian snagged 12 of the first 15 points of the decider to take a lead that she never relinquished in the 2 hour 7 minute battle.
The all-round game that Ostapenko possesses inflicts damage on Swiatek, while the peril the Latvian holds for the Pole is a psychological hurdle she must find a way to combat.
“I wasn’t able to play anything before, like, any tactics,” Swiatek said. “No, it was pretty simple, and I knew what I need to do. I did that in the second set, so it was just a matter of, like, keeping it for the whole match.
“Overall I felt better with my serve. So that’s what I was happy about, you know, that I managed to pull myself out from, like, serving really bad in the first set. So I just wanted to hold onto it.
“Yeah, like, I remember, like, it was pretty clear, you know, in the second set, but in the third, like, probably I over-thinked it a little bit in the beginning. But again, I started playing well in the middle of the third set, as well. So I just didn’t use my opportunities to break back after a bad start of the third set.”
Much is made of Ostapenko’s mastery over Swiatek, especially on clay, the Pole’s favoured surface.
In her on-court interview, Ostapenko was asked: “No one else has beaten Iga 6 times in a row. Which statement is more correct: she hates to play you, or you like to play her?”
The Latvian replied with a smile: “I think both. She is a great clay-court player as well. But, you know, I won French Open, so I can say about myself the same thing…”
Among WTA players who have not been ranked World No 1, Ostapenko is just the 3rd woman to win their first 6 matches against a former or future World No 1, joining the ranks of Gabriela Sabatini and Agnieszka Radwanska.
Ekaterina Alexandrova shocked World No 3 Jessica Pegula in the quarter-finals and meets Jelena Ostapenko for a place in the final on Sunday
Ostapenko, ranked 24, now faces 22nd-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova from Russia for a spot in the final, against whom she split their 10 career meetings evenly at 5-apiece.
Alexandrova beat 3rd-seeded Jessica Pegula in just less than an hour and a half, winning the first 7 games to build up a 6-0, 1-0 lead, before the Russian converted her 3rd break point in the 6th game to open up a 5-2 lead in the second set.
The American saved 3 match points, and pulled back on serve to reduce the gap to 4-5, and then fended off 2 more match points in the 10th game, but Alexandrova broke again on her 6th match point to seal the win and avenged her recent defeat against Pegula in the semi-final of the Charleston Open earlier this month.
“She’s going to be really tough,” Pegula had said before their encounter. “The last few times I have played her, every time I have played her, has been just an absolute war, battle. We just played in Charleston. It was a crazy match. Honestly, I probably should have lost the match, but was able to pull it out.”
This was Alexandrova’s 5th Top 10 win of the year, which ties her for the most Top 10 wins on the women’s tour so far this season, alongside Madison Keys and Mirra Andreeva.
Top seed Aryna Sabalenka beat Elise Mertens in her opening match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and has arrived in the Last 4
Meanwhile, top-seeded Sabalenka had a bye in the 1st-round and a walkover in the 2nd, while there was no play in Stuttgart on Good Friday, so her opening win against Belgian Elise Mertens was her first outing on the indoor clay, and it took her into the Last 4.
“I’ve never played first match on Saturday—that’s something crazy, and I’m really glad to be able to win the match!” she said in her on-court interview. “It’s been a fun week in Stuttgart. At least I was able to explore the city, finally, I don’t know how many years I’ve been coming here and never had a chance to go out.
“That was a fun week, but now it’s time to do the work.”
It was her 8th straight win over Mertens, a streak that dates back to 2019, while the Belarusian also won her last 15 sets in a row against the Belgian, with whom she has won 2 Grand Slam doubles titles.
While it proved to be a routine win for Sabalenka, there was some tension when she took matters into her own hands and used a mobile phone to snap a disputed ball mark after the umpire had refused to take another look.
The Belarusian looked bemused when an out call went against her to give Mertens the first service break and a 4-3 lead in the opening set of their quarter-final, and a check by umpire Miriam Bley confirmed the call.
Sabalenka went to look for herself, and when Bley refused her call to check again, she borrowed a phone from one of her team members to photo the mark to a mixture of cheers and whistles from the crowd.
Bley then gave Sabalenka a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the top seed put the incident behind her, and broke back immediately before cruising to the win.
“When I gave her [the umpire] a handshake, there was a very interesting look, and a very strong handshake, never had it before,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview.
Jasmine Paolini upset 4th-seeded Coco Gauff to set up a semi-final encounter with Aryna Sabalenka in Stuttgart
Sabalenka will meet Jasmine Paolini, the 5th seed, in the semi-finals after the Italian defeated American Coco Gauff in straight sets in the last match of the day.
Gauff originally led 4-2 in the opener before Paolini won 6 games in a row to move ahead 6-4, 2-0 and the Italian never looked back, finishing the match with 20 winners to just 12 unforced errors, while the American made 19 winners to her 27 miscues.
“I was trying to repeat to myself to keep going,” she said about the early deficit. “Then it started going really well, I started to hit the ball better, and it kept getting better, and I’m really happy how it went.”
Sabalenka and Paolini will now face each other in another all-Top 10 clash in the semi-finals, with the Belarusian leading the series, 4-2, but, more importantly, she has won their last 3 in straight sets, including a 6-2 6-2 win in the semi-finals of Miami just a few weeks ago.
“I hope she’s not playing as well as she was in Miami, because she was playing unbelievable there,” Paolini commented. “I will try my best tomorrow to make it difficult for her.”
