Hailey Baptiste stuns Sabalenka, saves six

Hailey Baptiste saved six match points and beat Aryna Sabalenka 2-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) in Madrid on Tuesday night. (wtatennis.com) (apnews.com) The win put the 24-year-old American into her first WTA 1000 semifinal and gave her the first top-five victory of her career. (wtatennis.com) (espn.com) Baptiste saved five of those match points while serving at 4-5 in the third set, then took the tiebreak 8-6. Sabalenka had led by a set and was two points from the match more than once. (tennis.com) (wtatennis.com) Sabalenka came to Madrid as the defending champion and had won 15 straight matches across her previous three tournaments. Baptiste handed her only the second loss of Sabalenka’s 2026 season. (espn.com) (thebiglead.com) Baptiste was seeded No. 30 in Madrid and had already beaten No. 8 Jasmine Paolini and former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the same run. Madrid is one of the WTA Tour’s biggest clay events before Roland-Garros. (si.com) (wtatennis.com) The semifinal bracket now sends Baptiste into the final four against Mirra Andreeva, who had already advanced on the other side of that half. Sabalenka’s exit also removed the top seed from the women’s draw before the last weekend. (espn.com) (wtatennis.com) “It was a tough match. She played great,” Sabalenka said after the loss. Baptiste walked off with the biggest result of her career and a semifinal spot she had to save six times to reach. (espn.com) (apnews.com)