He scored the shot of the tournament but it wasn’t enough Aryna Sabalenka forced to say goodbye in the quarterfinals of the “Porsche Tennis Grand Prix” (WTA 500 – prize pool $802,237) which is being played on clay indoors of the “Porsche Arena” of Stuttgart, in Germany. The Belarusian, n.2 in the ranking and seeding, finalist in the last three editions (stopped in 2021 by Barty and in 2022 and 2023 by Swiatek), gave up 36 63 75after a battle of over two hours, to the Czech Marketa Vondrousova, WTA n.8 and sixth seed, who returns to the semifinals for the first time since Wimbledon 2023 (when she then won her first – and so far only – Slam trophy), the last tournament in which she defeated a top five team ( the American Pegula in the quarterfinals).
The 24-year-old left-hander from Sokolov had won the first two direct matches with the 25-year-old from Minsk but then lost the following four between 2018 and 2023. This was the first time that the two faced each other on clay, a surface on which the Czech she first came to the fore by reaching the final at Roland Garros 2019 (beaten by Barty).
Match characterized by 13 breaks with Sabalenka who, as usual, made and unmade: for her on the scoresheet many more winners than her opponent (35 to 17) but also an avalanche more of gratuitous errors (48 against 19) . When serving, Sabalenka recorded 4 aces against 9 double faults, most of them in the last two sets (5 against 4 for Vondrousova). Furthermore, while Marketa was surgical on break points, exploiting 7 out of 8, Aryna converted only 6 out of 15.
On Saturday, Vondrousova will have to face the Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the semifinalsn.27 WTA, That in a daring game to say the least he came from behind with 36 64 76(6), at the end of a battle lasting over two and three quarter hours, the American Coco Gauffn.3 in the ranking and seeding, surrendered only at the eighth match point.
