{"id":76069,"date":"2024-03-27T17:24:57","date_gmt":"2024-03-27T17:24:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/azarenka-battles-into-miami-rybakina-beats-sakkari-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-03-27T17:24:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T17:24:57","slug":"azarenka-battles-into-miami-rybakina-beats-sakkari-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/azarenka-battles-into-miami-rybakina-beats-sakkari-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"Azarenka battles into Miami, Rybakina beats Sakkari | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nMIAMI:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three-time Miami Open winner Victoria Azarenka battled for nearly three hours to get past a determined Yulia Putintseva and take her place in the semi-finals with a 7-6 (7\/4), 1-6, 6-3 win on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the highest seeded player left in the tournament, held off a strong challenge from eighth-seed Maria Sakkari of Greece before emerging with a 7-5, 6-7 (4\/7), 6-4 win.<\/p>\n

The 34-year-old Azarenka, who won in Miami in 2009, 2011 and 2016, had to deal not only with the spirited display from the Moscow-born Kazakh player, but also a long disruption to the match due to a technical problem.<\/p>\n

The match was stopped for 45 minutes in the fourth game of the first set due to a power outage which impacted the umpire’s communications and the hawkeye system.<\/p>\n

Azarenka had to save three set points on Putintseva’s serve at 5-4 in the first set, then missed out on two set points of her own at 6-5 before the tie-break.<\/p>\n

Putintseva dominated the second set but Azarenka found the strength to get ahead in the third but still her opponent refused to relent, fighting off match point before breaking.<\/p>\n

But Azarenka held on her next serve to secure passage to the last four and keep alive her hope of a fourth Miami title.<\/p>\n

“Yulia played great, she’s in such great form and I really had to dig deep. I felt like my legs were kind of giving in a little bit and I lost a little bit of self-belief because she was playing so well and moving me around everywhere,” said Azarenka.<\/p>\n

“But I’m happy that I was able to regroup, reset and really take my chances, come out and play aggressive and face the challenge,” she said.<\/p>\n

Azarenka said the win showed that there can be no doubt about her desire to compete at the highest level.<\/p>\n

“I’m motivated to compete and go after my dreams. I’ve been playing on tour for 20 years and I still feel like I am improving, that’s priceless for me and I want to keep going,” she added.<\/p>\n

Belarusian Azarenka will face Rybakina for a place in the final.<\/p>\n

Rybakina, at 24, is the youngest player left in the tournament and she needed all her energy to survive a 2hr 48min tussle with Sakkari.<\/p>\n

Rybakina led 6-5 in the first set and the match looked poised for a tie-break but Sakkari’s service game deserted her at the crucial moment and she was broken with a fine down the line winner from the Kazakh, last year’s beaten finalist in Miami.<\/p>\n

Sakkari opened up a 4-2 lead in an error-strewn second set but allowed Rybakina to win the next three games and had to save two match points.<\/p>\n

The Greek ran out the winner in the tie-break but Rybakina, who looked to have an ankle problem, was able to finally break at 3-3 converting on her third break point.<\/p>\n

Sakkari’s determination saw her save four match points when 5-3 down as she held but this time Rybakina was able to close out the contest on her serve.<\/p>\n

“It was such a tough battle, as it has been before. I am really happy but now I just need to recover,” said Rybakina.<\/p>\n

World number one Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka and third seed Coco Gauff have all been eliminated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIAMI: Three-time Miami Open winner Victoria Azarenka battled for nearly three hours to get past a determined Yulia Putintseva and take her place in the semi-finals with a 7-6 (7\/4), 1-6, 6-3 win on Tuesday. Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the highest seeded player left in the tournament, held off a strong challenge from eighth-seed Maria Sakkari […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-27-at-5-34-32-PM1711543025-0\/WhatsApp-Image-2024-03-27-at-5-34-32-PM1711543025-0.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t