Alexander Zverev of Belarus is defeated by the fourth seed 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (2) to go to the men’s semifinals.
Elena Rybakina, the fourth seed, defeated Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 0-6, 7-6 (2) on Thursday to earn a trip back to the Miami Open final. Rybakina survived a disastrous second-set loss.
In two hours and thirty-three minutes, Rybakina, the top seed still in the women’s draw, earned roughly eighty-two percent of her first-serve points and converted just two of her eleven break-point opportunities.
The Kazakh, born in Moscow, Rybakina, remarked in her on-court interview following her run to her fourth final of the year, “It was such a tough battle.” “In the second set, Vika was hitting the serve really well, and I didn’t serve that well either. It was challenging, but I was determined to fight until the very end, and I did just that.
In the first set, Rybakina wasted her first five break-point opportunities before breaking through Azarenka’s serve to take a 4-3 lead. She then relied on her incredible strength to win the 51-minute set with a hold to love.
But Azarenka was not about to go down without a fight. In the second set, she produced a faultless performance, holding Rybakina to five points and breaking her serve three times to send the match to a decider.
Following a change of clothes, Rybakina started the third set off considerably better. In the fifth game, she broke at her fifth try to take a 3-2 lead after Azarenka smashed a backhand into the net. But when Azarenka earned a break to get to 5-5 when she followed down a drop shot before her opponent blasted a backhand volley into the net, Rybakina gave up on her first opportunity to serve out the match.
Rybakina, serving to stay in the match, held to love to force a tiebreak and she won the first three points of it before closing out the win. Rybakina, a title winner this year in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Doha, will next face either American Danielle Collins or Russian 14th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Meanwhile, the German fourth seed Alexander Zverev overcame tricky conditions to beat Hungaryโs Fabian Marozsan 6-3, 7-5 to reach the menโs semi-finals.
Zverev attacked Marozsanโs serve and converted three of his seven break-point chances, swatted aside the two break points he faced and won 80% of his first serve points en route to the last four in Miami where he has yet to drop a set.
Despite not dropping a set in windy conditions, Zverev had his hands full with Marozsan, who is making his Miami debut and enjoyed top-10 upsets over Holger Rune and Alex de Minaur on the way to the quarter-finals.
โIf he continues playing like that heโs going to rise up the rankings very quickly and heโs going to be one of those [top 10] guys himself,โ Zverev said in his on-court interview.
โI think all top players, when they are in control, they feel like they can manage the match, manipulate the match a little bit in their own favour. But against him thatโs not possible. Thatโs why he has such a great top-10 record and heโs an unbelievable player.
Zverevโs win, sealed with a break when he unleashed a brilliant backhand down the line, marked his return to the Miami Open semi-finals for the first time since his runner-up finish in 2018.
Zverev will next face either Spanish top seed Carlos Alcaraz or Bulgarian 11th seed Grigor Dimitrov.