Andreeva storms into Madrid Open final

MADRID: Up-and-coming Belgian Alexander Blockx ended the title defence of Casper Ruud on Thursday by defeating the former world number two 6-4, 6-4 to set up a Madrid Open semifinal against Alexander Zverev, while Mirra Andreeva booked her spot in the women's final.
Blockx, 21, who broke into the top 100 for the first time last month and is at a career-high 69 in the world, has knocked out four consecutive seeds, including third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime, en route to the final four.
Blockx is through to his first tour-level semifinal and is the first Belgian man in tournament history to make it this far at the Madrid Open.
Prior to this month, he had never won a tour-level match on clay. He now enters the semifinals with a 10-2 mark on the red dirt through qualifying and main draw matches at ATP level.
'To be honest, I don't know, I'm just happy being here. Even winning my first match here, I barely escaped in the first round,' said Blockx.
Ruud committed 17 unforced forehand errors during the match and will drop out of the top 20 for the first time since May 2021 when the new rankings are released next week.
'I found it depressing this game, because he didn't have really any weaknesses,' Ruud said after the match.
The three-time Grand Slam finalist revealed he had been dealing with a calf issue since Monte Carlo and is happy with how his leg held up this fortnight in the Spanish capital.
Two-time Madrid champion Alexander Zverev reached a seventh semifinal from his last eight Masters 1000 tournaments with a 6-1, 6-4 win against Italian 10th seed Flavio Cobolli, who beat the German en route to the Munich final 12 days ago.
FIRST FINAL
Meanwhile, Andreeva's remarkable clay-court campaign continued with a strong 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) performance against Aryna Sabalenka's conqueror Hailey Baptiste, which sent the Russian into her first Madrid final.
The ninth-seeded Andreeva is 12-1 on clay so far this season, with a title run in Linz, a semifinal showing in Stuttgart and now a final appearance in Madrid, where she awaits Marta Kostyuk, after the Ukrainian beat lucky loser Anastasia Potapova 6-2, 1-6, 6-1.
Andreeva was broken while serving for the match at 5-4 as Baptiste forced a tiebreak and saved three set points before the Russian wrapped up the win in one hour and 39 minutes.
'Honestly, I feel so much adrenaline inside. I feel like I'm still nervous. I'm just so happy that I won and that I was able to save all those set points,' said Andreeva, who won 81 percent of her first-serve points.
'The serve helped me a lot. I'm so, so happy, I cannot really find ways to describe what I'm feeling right now.'
Baptiste had a stellar run in Madrid with two top-10 victories over Jasmine Paolini and top-ranked Sabalenka, which will earn the 24-year-old American a top-30 debut next week.
Andreeva, who turned 19 on Wednesday, is the second-youngest finalist in tournament history, behind only Caroline Wozniacki. She is the first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals and will be targeting a third trophy at this level on Saturday, having won Dubai and Indian Wells last year. — AFP
ATP/WTA Madrid Open results
Men (quarterfinals)
Alexander Blockx (BEL) bt Casper Ruud (NOR x12) 6-4, 6-4; Alexander Zverev (GER x2) bt Flavio Cobolli (ITA x10) 6-1, 6-4
Women (semifinals)
Mirra Andreeva (RUS x9) bt Hailey Baptiste (USA x30) 6-4, 7-6 (10/8); Marta Kostyuk (UKR x26) bt Anastasia Potapova (AUT) 6-2, 1-6, 6-1