Sabalenka defeated Ostapenko in an hour in windy Rome. Arina for the second time in the semifinals of the tournament.
Alexander Nasonov May 15, 2024, 15:40 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.
Now the Belarusian will face her compatriot Victoria Azarenka or Danielle Collins, who is in great shape.
Today, May 15, the last women’s singles quarterfinal matches were played in the supertournament in Rome (Italy). The organizers established that the first start would be a meeting with the participation of the 2017 Roland Garros champion, Jelena Ostapenko, seeded ninth, and the two-time winner of the Australian Open, Aryna Sabalenka (2).
Both tennis players crossed the net to face-to-face, not without problems. Ostapenko only had one relatively easy match in the second round, beating Anastasia Potapova (6:4, 6:2). In the third round, Elena defeated Sara Sorribes-Tormo in three sets, despite 69 (!) unforced errors, and in the round of 16 she barely beat Rebecca Shramkova, who was outside the top hundred in the ranking of the WTA. The Latvian won a resounding victory 4:6, 6:4, 7:6 (7:3). And this match lasted almost three hours!
Jelena Ostapenko at the WTA-1000 tournament in Rome 2024
Photo: Dan Istitene/Getty Images
Sabalenka, who after the thousandth in Madrid did not get out of bed for four days due to illness, achieved a resounding victory over Katie Volynets in the second round. She then met Ukrainian women twice in a row. And if Arina defeated Dayana Yastremskaya quite confidently (6: 4, 6: 2), then she had to suffer with Elina Svitolina. Parallels with Ostapenko emerge: in the fourth round, the Belarusian, like the Latvian, won a decisive victory, winning 4:6, 6:1, 7:6 (9:7). At the same time, Sabalenka took three match points in a match that lasted almost two and a half hours.
Aryna Sabalenka at the WTA-1000 tournament in Rome 2024
Photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images
Both tennis players played their second semifinal in Rome. Ostapenko made it to the top four last season and Sabalenka did so in 2022. In 2023, Arina was defeated in the second round. Well, in the personal matches the score was 2-0 in favor of the Belarusian. He won 6:1, 6:2 in the second round of Zhengzhou 2019 and 2:6, 6:1, 6:2 in the third round of Dubai 2023.
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Sabalenka was considered the favorite, even though both athletes play power tennis. The match took place in strong wind conditions, which caused difficulties for the tennis players, especially at the moment of serve.
The Belarusian got used to these difficult conditions more quickly. Arina won five of the first six games. Ostapenko missed her shots with an unacceptable frequency (11 unforced errors per game compared to Sabalenka’s six). The Latvian won the first game after escaping two break points, but then came failure. In her games, Elena fought in some way, but her opponent always pressured her. And with her serve, Sabalenka left no chance for Ostapenko. Elena unexpectedly took the seventh game to zero, but then Arina served for the set without any problems, never allowing her opponent to break points: 6:2 in 36 minutes.
In the second game, the wind died down a little and this benefited Ostapenko. He started with 0:30 on serve, but recovered and then started to pick up his games. However, Sabalenka did the same. And in the seventh game, already with the score 3:3, the Latvian again made a series of errors and the Belarusian took a decisive step towards victory, taking advantage of the first break point. Serving for the match at 5:4, Arina took advantage of the first match point: 6:2, 6:4 in 1 hour and 13 minutes.
Sabalenka thus reached her second semi-final in the “thousand” in Rome. At this stage she will face two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka or AO 2022 finalist Danielle Collins, who has 18 wins in her last 19 matches. The American, who is retiring this year, suffered her only defeat in this period against Sabalenka, in the round of 16 of the thousand event in Madrid.
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Four-time TBS champion Iga Swiatek (1) and 2023 US Open winner Cori Gauff (3) will play in the “top” semi-final. Both matches to reach the final will be played on Thursday, May 16, with the decisive match on Saturday, May 18. Follow all the events of the “Championship”.
