Elena Rybakina completes Houdini style Great Escape act with deciding set struggle against Yulia Putintseva at Madrid Open

Elena Rybakina is through to the semi-finals of the 2024 Madrid Open, but in doing so completed a Houdini style Great Escape act in seeing off her compatriot Yulia Putintseva 4-6, 7-6(4), 7-5 to reach the latter stages again at a WTA 1000.

In almost three hours, she saved a multitude of match points as she saved her skin on multiple occasions when it looked like Putintseva was going to win the battle of the Kazakh's. Next up for Rybakina will be a bumper tie no matter what with Mirra Andreeva or Aryna Sabalenka her next foe.

The opening set saw Rybakina lose her serve at 3-2 after she had opportunities to break to start the tie. Putintseva hammered that advantage home and was barely troubled on her serve as she sealed a 6-4 opening set. Again Rybakina lost it to begin Set Two, but she hit back to level the tie up at 2-2. Neither were troubled on their serve ironically apart from Rybakina 4-4 where she had to save a break point. Rybakina then had a set point at 5-6 up but it went to a tie-break where she sent it all the way.

But this didn't matter for Putintseva who surged into a 5-2 lead over Rybakina and missed two match points with the first match point save in particular showing the true grit of the latter. This seemed to kick the stuffing out of Putintseva as Rybakina grew in confidence and turned it around winning the next five games to seal the win. Superb from the Ice Queen.