Stefanos Tsitsipas felt like his rival was once as speedy as a cheetah on middle courtroom on the Madrid Open.
Point after level, his opponent Sebastian Baez stored chasing down balls to stick in rivalry within the third-round fit.
The third-seeded Tsitsipas got here via within the snatch moments, regardless that, incomes a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win over the Thirty first-ranked Baez on Monday to protected a place within the remaining 16 of the clay-court match. .
Tsitsipas gained the remaining 4 video games of the outlet set and the remaining 3 of the 0.33 to advance.
“I had to bring the best out of my game,” Tsitsipas stated. “He wasn’t lacking a lot. Of path he is any individual that covers and runs across the courtroom beautiful neatly. He indisputably applied that beautiful neatly towards me, having the ability to navigate himself during all the courtroom very easily, simply gliding throughout the courtroom like a cheetah.”
Tsitsipas broke for 5-3 within the 0.33 set and stored two ruin issues sooner than serving it out.
“He really fought for every single point,” Tsitsipas stated, “and I’m glad obviously that I overcame this.”
Tsitsipas, searching for his first identify of the season, stepped forward to 8-2 on clay. He was once a finalist within the Australian Open and remaining week in Barcelona. He was once additionally a finalist at Madrid in 2019, and a semifinalist once more in 2022.
Women’s international no. 1 Iga Swiatek dropped her first set of the match sooner than securing a 6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3 win over Sixteenth-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova. She will likely be making her first quarterfinal look in Madrid towards Twenty seventh-seeded Petra Martic, who complicated previous Eleventh-seeded Barbora Krejcikova 6-3, 7-6 (1).
Swiatek is the primary participant to succeed in the quarterfinals or higher at 8 consecutive clay-court tournaments since Simona Halep made it to ten in a row between 2016 and 2019.
Third-seeded American Jessica Pegula, remaining 12 months’s runner-up in Madrid, reached the remaining 8 by way of beating Martina Trevisan 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.
Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka complicated after finishing Russian youngster Mirra Andreeva’s spectacular run on the match.
After 3 straight-set victories towards top-40 combatants in her main-draw debut, the 16-year-old wildcard access misplaced 6-3, 6-1 to Sabalenka in her first center-court look in Madrid.
Andreeva changed into the youngest participant to succeed in the remaining 16 of a WTA 1000 tournament after frightening 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez within the first around, 14th-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second one and Nineteenth-ranked Magda Linette within the 0.33. She gained 16 immediately suits in any respect ranges sooner than falling to Sabalenka, her first Top 10 opponent.
“I’m really happy with the result,” Sabalenka stated. “In the primary few video games I used to be simply seeking to modify to her recreation and her rhythm. After that I began feeling my recreation a bit bit higher and began taking part in higher.”
Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion and the 2021 Madrid Open winner, has reached the quarterfinals or higher in all seven tournaments she has performed in 2023, sporting a 26-4 document for the 12 months.
Her subsequent opponent will likely be Mayar Sherif, who beat Elise Merten 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 after just about 3 hours to transform the primary Egyptian to succeed in the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 match. She was once already the primary Egyptian lady to play in a Grand Slam, and the primary to win a excursion identify.
“It means a lot, just mentally, to be able to know that I can do this, that I can compete at the highest level in tennis,” stated the 59th-ranked Sherif, who lives and trains in Spain. numerous motivation to stay bettering … and to clearly take that self belief for the remainder of the 12 months.”
Ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari complicated over home-crowd favourite Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-4, whilst Twelfth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova beat eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (2).
Men’s no. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev rallied two times from a ruin down within the remaining set to succeed in the remaining 16 on the expense of fellow Russian Alexander Shevchenko by way of 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. The victory took Medvedev to a tour-best 33-4 document. He will subsequent face qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who defeated Sixteenth-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
In different males’s suits, eighth-seeded Taylor Fritz beat Cristian Garin 6-1, 7-6 (4), Zhang Zhizhen disillusioned Eleventh-seeded Cameron Norrie 2-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) and Bernabe Zapata Miralles outlasted qualifier Roman Safiullin 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.