Aryna Sabalenka reached the quarter-finals of the tournament in Madrid after achieving a comeback against Danielle Collins 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in a battle that lasted two hours and 25 minutes.
It was a fine start for the American, who earlier in the year announced that this was her last season on the Tour. She went 3-0 up, but then lost her advantage. Second seed Sabalenka, however, continued to be unstable and allowed a break again. Collins missed two set points at 5-3 in her favor and her opponent broke back, only to be broken for the third time in the set, costing her the set.
In the second, the representative of Belarus patiently waited for her moment and after a break in the ninth game, served successfully for set to set. In the decisive third set, Sabalenka led 3-0 after two breaks, and although Collins returned one of them, she had no strength for anything more, losing another service game and thereby the match.
The two-time champion in the Spanish capital has a match with 17-year-old Russian Mira Andreeva. The teenager overcame 12th seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in straight sets.
The second quarter-final in the lower half is all-Kazakhstan and pits Yulia Putintseva against fourth seed Elena Rybakina. At the top, world No. 1 Iga Swiatek plays Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia, while Madison Keys, who knocked out compatriot Coco Gauff in the last 16, takes on 2022 champion Ons Jabeur. /BGNES
