Madrid Open WTA Quarter-Finals Round-Up | Marta Kostyuk's exceptional form continues, faces lucky loser star Anastasia Potapova

The WTA Quarter-Finals concluded at the Madrid Open on Wednesday with Karolina Pliskova facing Anastasia Potapova. Also Marta Kostyuk took on Linda Noskova and it was Potapova and Kostyuk who won through.

First of all through to the semi-finals at the Madrid Open was Anastasia Potapova who is the first lucky loser to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since the inception of the format began in 1990. She saw off Karolina Pliskova in a 1 hour and 54 minutes on Wednesday.

Potapova led 6-1, 5-3 and held three match points in the second set but ultimately had to reel off five straight games from 3-1 down in the decider to seal the win.

The former Linz champion reached her first WTA 500 final three weeks ago at the same tournament which has since had an upgrade. But she fell 6-2, 6-7, 6-3 to Sinja Kraus in the final round of Madrid qualifying. She has posted three consecutive wins over former World No.1's or Grand Slam champions in the main draw. She sealed upsets over Jelena Ostapenko and Elena Rybakina.

Potapova is the first player representing Austria to reach a WTA 1000 semi-final since 2007. Through the first set and a bit, Potapova was dominant and looked to be easing towards the finish. She fired 10 winners to Pliskova's five. Potapova struck first denting the resolve of Pliskova breaking for 4-3 an a game later, she hit an eighth ace to hold for 5-3.

Potapova served at 5-4 with double match point but she double faulted twice in succession and the set was all square again. Pliskova did not build on the break back and poor errors allowed Potapova to serve out the match at 6-5 but another forehand winner staved off match point.

Pliskova stayed on the front foot and Pliskova was handed the break back and another from Potapova saw her starting to fall apart after the finishing line was so close. Down 3-1, Potapova started to rally. She started to rediscover her dominance and she would only drop two more points rattling off 16 out of the last 18 of the match to seal her semi-final spot.

She lauded praise on her partner and fellow pro Tallon Griekspoor who was in her box and in Potapova's view has a bright future in coaching. "To be honest, I was a little bit gone mentally in the third set," Potapova said. "I didn't believe in myself at that moment. But -- this is the first time I'm gonna say it -- big respect to my boyfriend who came just on time. He saved me just on time."

"I think he has bright future in coaching, we knew it before this match," Potapova said. "The support he has, it's unbelievable. He believes so hard. The things what he can say, I don't think anyone can say that during the match, because [he's not] afraid. Like, he's not scared of me. He can tell me literally anything.

"Today, he just told me to shut up, to keep on working, to start working with my legs. And that we are both here together in this match, I'm not just by myself. It just happened at such important moment, and it gave me a lot of energy. Mentally, I think he got this match. I did it physically. He did it mentally.

"I was talking way too much to myself, to my box, spending too much energy on some words which I shouldn't do. I just should have just locked in and fight for every point. But at that moment exactly, that's when I heard, 'Shut up and start to work.' So, which I did. I just started to be more quiet, started to move my legs better. I got little bit lucky. She double faulted as well. She had some unforced errors. But I got to say, it was not that easy to serve because it was pretty windy, and the wind was going inside and going round. It was not easy to serve at all."

Next up is Marta Kostyuk who managed to seal progression over Linda Noskova in a highly entertaining clash but one that showed sheer dominance in the second.

For some Kostyuk given that she has barely lost a game on clay including winning Rouen is seen as the favourite for the title with Andreeva and Baptiste in the other quarter and given she faces a former Russian and a lucky loser in Potapova it should give further motivation.

Against Noskova, the first set in particular was very close. Noskova lost her serve after immediately breaking early for 2-0 and Kostyuk went on to hold a 4-2 lead. But the end of the set was a thrilling one as it was break after break. From 4-4 no player could hold their serve until the set ended with Noskova being taken to a tie-break and ironically it was dominant as they come with a 7-1 scoreline.

This provided the catalyst as Kostyuk raced through in little to no time at all as she sealed the second set 6-0 in a bagel with Noskova barely able to lay a glove on her as she sped away. She barely lost a point all set ironically until she missed three match points but she finally got over the line and remains the woman to be feared in the draw this week.