MADRID • Ashleigh Barty will take on Paula Badosa in the semi-finals of the Madrid Open after beating Petra Kvitova 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 yesterday.
The world No. 1 is chasing her fourth singles title of the year after her triumph in Stuttgart 11 days ago.
Next up is the woman who knocked her out in the quarter-finals in Charleston last month.
Yesterday's match appeared settled when Barty went ahead 3-0 in the deciding set against two-time Wimbledon champion and 2015 and 2018 Madrid winner Kvitova.
The Czech then broke back to close to 3-2. But, after saving two break points, she lost her serve for a second time in the set.
Barty then saved three break points on her way to going 5-2 up and held again two games later to see out the match.
Wild card Badosa became the first Spanish woman in the tournament's 12-year history to make the semi-finals with her 6-4, 7-5 win over eighth seed Belinda Bencic.
Her win over the 11th-ranked Swiss was her third against a player in the top 20 following her semi-final appearance in Charleston.
Badosa kissed the clay court in celebration of a win that will shoot the world No. 62 20 places up the WTA Tour rankings.
In the men's draw, second seed Daniil Medvedev, returning to the ATP circuit after testing positive for Covid-19 in mid-last month, picked up his first win on clay in two years when he came back from a set down to beat Spain's Alejandro Davidovich Fokina 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.
The Russian has always struggled on the red dirt and this was his first win in Madrid on his third appearance.
"I love clay," he said ironically into the camera at the end of the match.
In total, the Australian Open finalist has only 11 wins on the surface although he will have the chance to make that 12 when he takes on Chile's Cristian Garin in last 16.
Also, German fifth seed Alexander Zverev swept past Japan's Kei Nishikori in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 while seventh seed Diego Schwartzman of Argentina was dumped out by Russian Aslan Karatsev 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
WTA TOUR MADRID OPEN
S-finals: StarHub Ch201, 7pm & tomorrow, 2.30am
ATP TOUR MADRID MASTERS
Day 4: StarHub Ch211, 5pm
