Another day, another Mutua Madrid Open rollercoaster.
Anastasia Potapova became the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 or Tier I semifinal since the Tier format’s inception in 1990 with a 6-1, 6-7(4), 6-3 defeat of Karolina Pliskova in 1 hour and 54 minutes on Wednesday. Potapova led 6-1, 5-3 and held her first three match points in the second set, but ultimately had to reel off five straight games from 3-1 down in the decider to advance.
Madrid: Scores | Draws | Order of play
The World No. 56, who reached her first WTA 500 final three weeks ago in Linz but fell 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3 to Sinja Kraus in the final round of Madrid qualifying, has posted three straight wins over former World No. 1s or Grand Slam champions in the main draw, following her upsets of Jelena Ostapenko in the third round and Elena Rybakina in the fourth round. Potapova becomes the first player representing Austria to reach a WTA 1000 or Tier I semifinal since Sybille Bammer at Indian Wells 2007.
The 25-year-old will face either No. 13 seed Linda Noskova or No. 26 seed Marta Kostyuk as she bids to extend her historic run even further.
More to come…
