Hailey Baptiste was down six match points and still won. The American 30th seed stunned world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open on Tuesday, winning 2-6 6-2 7-6 (8-6) in just over two and a half hours to pull off one of the more remarkable upsets of the WTA season.
It was Baptiste's first career win over a top-five player. Sabalenka came in as the defending champion and had won 15 consecutive matches. She leaves Madrid having lost to just the second player to beat her this season, after Elena Rybakina defeated her in the Australian Open final.
Baptiste dropped the first set without much resistance, but her game shifted in the second. She converted three of her four break points to win the set 6-2 and force a decider.
The third set was where the match became extraordinary. Trailing 5-4, Baptiste faced five consecutive match points and saved every one of them. She broke Sabalenka for the third time in the set and served for the match, only for Sabalenka to break back. In the tiebreak, Sabalenka earned a sixth match point at 6-5. Baptiste won three straight points to close it out.
Her strategy throughout was deliberate. She served and volleyed, used drop shots at critical moments, and denied Sabalenka the rhythm she typically imposes on opponents. "It was an uncomfortable situation for her, me serving and volleying, hitting a drop shot in one of the match points," Baptiste said. "It's not the easiest position to put her in, which is the plan."
Baptiste had played Sabalenka just weeks earlier in Miami and said that match gave her a tactical blueprint. "I had a better idea of how to play her and adjustments I needed to make," she said.
Sabalenka, to her credit, acknowledged the quality of Baptiste's performance. "She played really brave tennis on those match points," she said. "In the first game of the second set, I double faulted twice out of nowhere. That gave her belief. She started playing aggressively. What can I say? Well done."
Baptiste advances to the semifinals, where she will face world number nine Mirra Andreeva of Russia, who beat Canada's Leylah Fernandez in straight sets.
