MADRID: Stefanos Tsitsipas felt like he was facing a cheetah on center court at the Madrid Open.
Point after point, his opponent Sebastian Baez kept chasing down balls and running around to stay alive in the third-round match.
The third-seeded Tsitsipas came through in the clutch moments, though, earning a 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 win over the 31st-ranked Argentine to secure a spot in the last 16 of the clay-court tournament on Monday.
The Greek won the final four games of the opening set and the last three of the third to book his spot in the next round.
“I had to bring the best out of my game,” Tsitsipas said. “He wasn’t missing much. Of course he’s someone that covers and runs around the court pretty well. He definitely utilized that pretty well against me, being able to navigate himself throughout the entire court with ease, just gliding through the court like a cheetah.”
Tsitsipas broke for 5-3 in the final set and saved two break points to serve out the match after more than two hours.
“He wasn’t going to give up,” Tsitsipas said. “He really fought for every single point and I’m glad obviously that I overcame this.”
Tsitsipas, seeking his first title of the season, improved to 8-2 on clay. He was a finalist in the Australian Open and last week in Barcelona. He also was a finalist in Madrid in 2019, and a semifinalist again in 2022.
Earlier in the women’s draw, Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva’s impressive run was ended by second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.
After three straight-set victories against top-40 opponents in her main-draw debut, the 16-year-old wild card couldn’t get past Sabalenka in the fourth round, losing 6-3, 6-1 in her first center-court appearance in Madrid.
Andreeva became the youngest player to reach the last 16 of a WTA 1000 event after upsetting 2021 US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez in the first round, 14th-ranked Beatriz Haddad Maia in the second and 19th-ranked Magda Linette in the third. She won 16 straight matches at all levels before falling to Sabalenka, her first top-10 opponent.
“It was a great match. I’m really happy with the result,” the second-ranked Sabalenka said. “In the first few games I was just trying to adjust to her game and her rhythm. After that I started feeling my game a little bit better and started playing better.”
Sabalenka, the Australian Open champion and the 2021 Madrid Open winner, has reached at least the quarterfinals in all seven tournaments she has played in 2023, carrying a 26-4 record for the year.
Her next opponent will be Mayar Sherif, who defeated Elize Merten 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 after nearly three hours to become the first Egyptian to reach the quarterfinals of a WTA 1000 tournament. She was already the first Egyptian woman to play in a Grand Slam, and the first to win a tour title.
“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,” said the 59th-ranked Sherif, who lives and trains in Spain. “It gives me a lot of motivation to keep improving, to keep working on the things that I need to work on, and to obviously take that confidence for the rest of the year.”
Ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari reached the last eight by beating home-crowd favorite Paula Badosa 6-4, 6-4, while 12th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova defeated eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (2).
Men’s second seed Daniil Medvedev came from a break down twice in the final set to reach the last 16 at the expense of fellow Russian Alexander Shevchenko by 4-6, 6-1, 7-5. The victory took Medvedev to a tour-best 33-4 record. He will next face qualifier Aslan Karatsev, who defeated 16th-seeded Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
Eighth-seeded American Taylor Fritz defeated Cristian Garin 6-1, 7-6 (4), while Jan-Lennard Struff defeated Dusan Lajovic 6-7 (2), 6-3, 6-3.
