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, leaving only Aryna Sabalenka, the World No 1, as the last one standing while Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, and Coco Gauff were all 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 Swiatek
Sabalenka, playing her first match of the week, won a relatively close first set and cruised in the second to defeat Elise Mertens, 6-4 6-1. In contrast, 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 lost, 6-4 6-3, to Jasmine Paolini.
Of the upsets, the biggest was Swiatek’s loss, marking the 6th time she has been bested by Ostapenko, who has a peculiar dominance over the Pole.
The 2017 Roland Garros champion from Latvia’s risky game again proved effective against Swiatek, who seems unable to break free from Ostapenko’s grip.
It was disheartening for the 5-time Grand Slam champion, who lost to Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals here last year, and has yet to clinch 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 the third set because, I think, for sure, it was important. But, you know, I kept fighting. Yeah.
“I think my head was much clearer, 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 unbalance Swiatek, and the 6-3 6-1 defeat the Pole faced on hard courts in Doha is one of her most lopsided losses.
No one else has defeated Swiatek 6 times without a loss, and the 27-year-old Latvian now holds a 12-3 advantage in sets against the Pole.
Iga Swiatek 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, breaking Swiatek’s serve 3 times to capture the first set. Though 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 an insurmountable lead in the 2-hour, 7-minute match.
The all-round game Ostapenko possesses inflicts considerable damage on Swiatek, while the psychological hurdle the Latvian presents is something the Pole must confront.
“I wasn’t able to play with any tactics,” Swiatek said. “No, it was pretty simple, and I knew what I needed 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 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 emphasis is placed on 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 smiled and replied: “I think both. She is a great clay-court player as well. But, you know, I won the French Open, so I can say the same about myself.”
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 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 has split their 10 career meetings evenly at 5 apiece.
Alexandrova beat 3rd-seeded Jessica Pegula in just under an hour and a half, winning the first 7 games to build a 6-0, 1-0 lead. The Russian converted her 3rd break point in the 6th game to take 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, fending off 2 more match points in the 10th game. However, Alexandrova broke again on her 6th match point to seal the win, avenging her recent defeat to Pegula in the Charleston Open semi-finals earlier this month.
“She’s going to be really tough,” Pegula had said before their encounter. “The last few times I have played her have 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, tying 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 first round and a walkover in the second. With no play in Stuttgart on Good Friday, her opening win against Mertens was her first outing on the indoor clay, advancing her into the Last 4.
“I’ve never played the first match on Saturday—that’s something crazy, and I’m really glad to have won 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 Sabalenka’s 8th straight win over Mertens, a streak dating back to 2019, while the Belarusian has won her last 15 sets against the Belgian, with whom she has won 2 Grand Slam doubles titles.
While it was a routine win for Sabalenka, there was tension when she used a mobile phone to snap a disputed ball mark after the umpire refused to review it.
Sabalenka looked bemused when an out call went against her, giving Mertens the first service break and a 4-3 lead in the opening set. A check by umpire Miriam Bley confirmed the call.
Sabalenka went to check herself, and when Bley refused her call to inspect again, she borrowed a phone from a team member to photograph the mark, eliciting mixed reactions from the crowd.
Bley then issued Sabalenka a warning for unsportsmanlike conduct, but the top seed moved past the incident and broke back immediately, going on to secure the win.
“When I gave her [the umpire] a handshake, there was a very interesting look and a very strong handshake; I’ve never had it before,” Sabalenka said.
Jasmine Paolini upset 4th-seeded Coco Gauff to set up a semi-final encounter with Aryna Sabalenka in Stuttgart.
Sabalenka will now 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, never looking back. Paolini finished the match with 20 winners to just 12 unforced errors, while Gauff made 19 winners against her 27 miscues.
“I was trying to remind 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 with how it went.”
Sabalenka and Paolini will face off in another all-Top 10 clash in the semi-finals, with the Belarusian leading their series, 4-2. More importantly, she has won their last 3 meetings in straight sets, including a 6-2 6-2 win in the Miami semi-finals just 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.”
