The Mutua Madrid Open, a Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 category tournament with a prize fund of €8.2 million, ends in the Spanish capital.
For the first time in eleven years, a Russian athlete will compete in the final of the tournament. This became clear after world number eight Mirra Andreeva broke the resistance of American Haley Baptiste in two games. According to the points scored this year, the Russian woman came in fourth place.
There was almost no doubt that Mirra Andreeva would not be able to avoid adventures in this semi-final. Having saved six match points from world number one Aryna Sabalenka on Tuesday, American Haley Baptiste made it clear that no gifts could be expected from her, while the Russian, even in her best matches in recent weeks, was not ideally stable. However, Andreeva, who celebrated her 19th birthday on April 29, had a great opportunity to reach the final, saving herself and her fans nerve cells. After all, for almost an hour and a half straight, she acted almost perfectly.
In five games of the first game, Andreeva gave up only two points on her serve, and in the seventh game, after a timely dash for her opponent’s shortened shot, she managed to make a break.
In the second set, the game was also mainly played on Baptist’s serve. Having taken it in the fifth game, the Russian woman some time later, with the score 5:3, failed to cope with her opponent’s risky attack on the first match point, and then went out to serve to reach the final.
This is where those adventures began. Soon after Andreev’s first double fault of the day, there was a breakdown in the execution of the smash, which resulted in a temporary loss of confidence. Baptist equalized the score and brought the matter to a tiebreaker, where she led 4:0. Only then, finding herself on the verge of failure in the second game, did the Russian mobilize her nervous system and give chase.
But Baptist still did not give up. Having again won two points in a row and leading 6:4, the American earned two set points, but Andreeva saved the first of them with a magnificent candle, and on the second she was a little lucky. Baptiste also had a third set point, which the Russian returned with an ace.
Another ace, already Baptist, helped her save the second match point that Andreeva had. But the Russian woman still had the last word. With the score 8:8, she made an excellent backhand shot down the line, after which the American made a small mistake on the third match point.
As a result – 6:4, 7:6 (10:8). Having won two 500 tournaments this season in Adelaide and Linz, Andreeva reached the decisive stage at the 1000 for the first time since March last year.
By the way, Russian tennis players have not achieved such success in Madrid for more than ten years. The last time one of them, Svetlana Kuznetsova, managed to reach the final there in 2015, when the Czech Petra Kvitova became the strongest.
