On the evening of May 15, Beijing time, the 2024 WTA1000 Rome Station began to compete for the 1/4 finals in the lower half of the region. In the first match, two Grand Slam champions, Sabalenka and Ostapenko, combined for a spectacular match, and Sabalenka defeated her opponent in straight sets 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the semi-finals and announce her strong return once again.
After Sabalenka defended her title at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year, she experienced a series of family changes such as her boyfriend's suicide, and her competitive state was greatly affected. In most races, they have been defeated. However, at the last stop in Madrid, Sabalenka finally recovered and made it all the way to the final, and finally lost in three sets against Swiatek. At that time, the matchup was arguably the most exciting matchup of the women's tennis tournament this year.
Sabalenka in Rome 2-1 Volinets and 2-0 Yastremska in the last round of the duel with Svitolina, fought hard in the three-set tiebreaker and won 9-7, but the state is still up and down. The opponent in this round is former French Open champion clay master Ostapenko, who also defeated Slamkova 7-3 in the last round after a three-set tiebreaker. Sabalenka have won two of the two professional meetings they have met, most recently 2-6, 6-1, 6-1 at the start of the year in Dubai.
In the first set, Ostapenko served first. The first service game was fiercely contested, with Ostapenko saving two match points and holding serve. After that, the game went into Sabalenka's control, and Sabalenka broke the tie in a row to win five games in a row and lead 5-1. In the 7th game, Ostapenko had to hold the serve, relying on a strong serve, love game to hold serve, 5-2. In the 8th game, Sabalenka won the set on serve, got the match point 40-15, easily cashed in, and 6-2 Sabalenka took the next game.
First set stats (Ostapenko in front): aces 2-0, double faults 2-0, first serve success rate 82%-71%, first serve win rate 61%-73%, second serve win rate 14%-83%.
In the second set, Ostapenko continued to start. The two sides played their own characteristics, simple and direct to each other, and there were no break points in the first six games, and each held serve for 3-3. In the seventh game, Ostapenko made a mistake to fight for two break points at 15-40, and Sabalenka seized the opportunity to break successfully to lead 4-3. In the 8th game, Sabalenka's powerful backhand cut made Ostapenko at a loss, 5-3. In the 9th game, Ao Fat had to keep the serve, and the serve was still online, 5-4. In the 10th game, Sabalenka won the game on serve, won the match point 40-30 perfectly, and won the second set 6-4.
Congratulations to Sabalenka on reaching the semi-finals! They also qualified for the semi-finals of the Clay 1000 tournament back-to-back and will await the winner between Collins and Azarenka. Sabalenka was asked about the "Big Three" of women's tennis in an interview in Madrid: "I think I'm a bit off the chain for the Big Three who have been fired, and it seems that there are only two big two in the past few months." It seems that Sabalenka is not satisfied with her results after the Australian Open, but she has reached the semifinals of clay for two consecutive tournaments and officially announced her strong return! Maybe the first title after the Australian Open is in Rome!