Maria
Sakkari had to battle for almost three hours to defeat
Irina Begu 6(3)-7, 6-4,
6-2.
Sakkari had
lost in the first round of Stuttgart, the only clay-court match she had played
this year before coming to the
Madrid Open. On the Spanish courts, the Greek
player found her level and reached the quarterfinals after a great victory over
the local Paula Badosa in two sets.
Irina Begu
reached the Madrid Open quarterfinals for the third time in her career,
following her run in 2015, where she lost to the eventual champion Petra
Kvitova, and a similar situation in 2017, where her compatriot Simona Halep
eliminated her before going on to win the tournament. This year, the world No.
35 defeated difficult opponents in her path, including Karolina Muchova, Shelby
Rogers, and Liudmila Samsonova.
The first
set had both players struggling on their serves, exchanging breaks on both sides.
Sakkari had the opportunity to win the set with her serve when she was up 5-3,
but the Romanian player came back and everything went to a tiebreaker. Begu won
five points in a row and took the set 7-6(3) in 76 minutes.
In the
second set, Sakkari was more precise, although she still had doubts on her
serve. Begu showed resistance to worry the Greek player. Despite being up 5-2
and with serve in hand, the world No. 10 got into trouble towards the end, but
managed to come out on top 6-4. The final part of the match showed Begu more
physically weakened against a Sakkari who took advantage of the drop shots to
win several points.
In a total
of 2 hours and 55 minutes, Sakkari won a difficult match and will face Aryna
Sabalenka in the Madrid semifinals.
