Andreeva beats Baptiste to reach first Madrid finalImage source, Getty ImagesImage caption, Mirra Andreeva, who turned 19 years old on Wednesday, won her previous two WTA 1000 finals, in Dubai and Indian Wells last yearByMike PeterBBC Sport journalistPublished19 minutes agoTeenager Mirra Andreeva reached her first Madrid Open final with a 6-4 7-6 (10-8) victory over Hailey Baptiste.The 19-year-old Russian will face 26th seed Marta Kostyuk in Saturday’s final, after the Ukrainian beat Austria’s Anastasia Potapova 6-2 1-6 6-1.Ninth seed Andreeva has won all bar one of her 13 clay-court matches this season, taking the title in Linz and reaching the semi-finals in Stuttgart, and becomes the first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals.After taking the first set against the 30th seed, Andreeva served for the match at 5-4, but was broken by Baptiste who then took the second set to a tiebreak.The 24-year-old American, who defeated world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round, saved three set points before Andreeva completed her win.
“Honestly, I feel so much adrenaline inside. I feel like I’m still nervous. I’m just so happy that I won and that I was able to save all those set points,” reported Andreeva, who has become the second-youngest finalist in the tournament’s history, behind Caroline Wozniacki.
“The serve helped me a lot. I’m so, so happy – I cannot really find ways to describe what I’m feeling right now,” added Andreeva.
Kostyuk advanced to her first WTA 1000 final in an error-strewn match against lucky loser Potapova, winning the first set with two breaks but losing the second in 30 minutes.
The 23-year-old raced to a 4-0 lead in the decider and refused to shake the hand of her Russian-born opponent after closing the match out.
In the men’s tournament, defending champion Casper Ruud was beaten in the quarter-finals by Belgian Alexander Blockx, 6-4 6-4.
Unseeded Blockx, who only broke into the top 100 for the first time last month and is at a career-high 69th in the world, has knocked out four consecutive seeds, including third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, in the Spanish capital.
The 21-year-old defeated Ruud, the Norwegian 21st seed, in 96 minutes and will now face Alexander Zverev in his first tour-level semi-final, having never previously won a tour match on clay prior to this season.
Two-time Madrid champion Zverev won 6-1 6-4 against Italian 10th seed Flavio Cobolli, who beat the German en route to the Munich final 12 days ago, and has now reached the semi-finals in seven of his past eight Masters 1000 tournaments.
Top seed Jannik Sinner will face 21st seed Arthur Fils in Friday’s other semi-final after the pair won their quarter-finals on Wednesday.
