Aryna Sabalenka fights back from set and break down to overcome Naomi Osaka at Madrid Open
In a battle between the current and former world No 1 Sabalenka eventually came out on top
World No 1 and top seed Aryna Sabalenka survived an almighty scare against Naomi Osaka at the Madrid Open , fighting back from a set and a break down to progress to the quarter-finals. The Belarusian’s usual prowess in tiebreaks deserted her as she lost the first set on a lopsided breaker, 7-6(1), before falling 2-1 down in the second set after two mammoth games. But she regained her composure to break back to love for 2-2, aided by an Osaka double fault, and broke again for 5-3 from 40-0 down on her way to levelling the match.
Errors began to creep into Osaka’s game in a frustrating third set, while Sabalenka was near-faultless on serve, dropping just three points, and she ran away with the decider to post a 6-7(1), 6-3, 6-2 win in two hours and 20 minutes. The result keeps her hopes of defending her title and winning a fourth trophy in the Spanish capital alive. Sabalenka said afterwards: “Oh my God, that was incredible level.
She played incredible tennis. I feel like I just got lucky in a couple shots in the third set, that's why it went that fast. " “I think I just dropped my level at the end of the first set and gave her that tiebreak quite easily, but overall I'm happy with my performance.
When someone put me under pressure, I was able to pull out really incredible shots and incredible tennis. So I'm happy. “I'm happy that she actually brought that fight, just so I could fight through it, I could struggle a little bit, and find a solution in the match.