Elena Rybakina saves match points to reach Madrid semis after dramatic clash against 'angry' Yulia Putintseva

Updated 01/05/2024 at 20:46 GMT

World No. 4 Elena Rybakina reached the semi-finals of the Madrid Open with a hard-fought win over Yulia Putintseva. Rybakina saved two match points and fought back from 5-2 down to beat Putintseva, who smashed her racquet on the court in frustration after the match. Rybakina next faces world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka in a blockbuster affair in the next round.

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Elena Rybakina saved two match points as she dug deep for a dramatic comeback win over Yulia Putintseva in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.

The world No. 4 was down a set and a break and then trailed 5-2 in the deciding set, but she won five games in a row to seal a 4-6 7-6(4) 7-5 win.

A fuming Putintseva smashed her racquet on the court several times after letting a big victory escape her.

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Rybakina will play defending champion Aryna Sabalenka in her sixth semi-final of the season.

"It was a really tough match," said Rybakina, who has now won 16 matches in a row on clay.

"I was hoping I would start much better but I was having a lot of unforced errors, at 5-2 I already left all the emotions and frustrations and I kept on playing and the momentum shifted. Yulia started to a bit more angry and some mistakes helped me and I kept on playing."

World No. 50 Putintseva had won both previous meetings against Rybakina and she took the first set with one break of serve.

There looked to be an upset on the cards when Putintseva broke again to lead 2-1 in the second set.

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Rybakina hit straight back to level at 2-2 but appeared to be growing frustrated as she struggled to find her best level.

She got an early lead in the tie-breaker and eventually clinched the set with a high backhand volley.

Putintseva continued to threaten early in the third set but threw her racquet to the ground after missing a second break point.

She did break in the next service game to move 4-2 ahead and then fired down a love hold to close on a shock win.

The finish line was in sight as Putintseva fashioned two match points, but Rybakina saved both, the first with a drop shot that clipped the top of the net and the second with an ace.

From there the match quickly ran away from Putintseva as more unforced errors crept in and she lost four games in a row to slip to defeat.

Rybakina will take on reigning champion Sabalenka for a spot in the final after the No. 2 seed continued her title defence with a victory in the last eight later on Wednesday.

Sabalenka ended 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva’s dream run to the quarter-finals as she secured a relatively straightforward 6-1 6-4 victory to progress to the last four.

"I'm super happy with the level I played today, and with this win," Sabalenka said after the match. "She [Andreeva] is an incredible player even though she's super young.“

The conditions suit me well, and hopefully, I can just keep going the way that I'm going."

Sabalenka, a Madrid Open winner in both 2021 and 2023, has now triumphed in 10 straight matches at the Caja Magica and has reached the semi-finals for the third time in her career.

During the one-hour and 19-minute quarter-final encounter against Andreeva, the back-to-back Australian Open champion did not face a single break point.

She won five consecutive games in a very comfortable first set, before fighting back from 2-1 down in the second set with three wins on the bounce.

Sabalenka is bidding to become only the second player to win the Madrid Open three times.

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