JAKARTA - World number one tennis player Aryna Sabalenka managed to keep her chances of defending the Madrid Open title after coming back from one set down to beat former world number one Naomi Osaka in the fourth round of this year's edition.
The Belarusian athlete, who holds the status of the first seed, passed the very intense match against Osaka and won 6-7 (1), 6-3, and 6-2 in two hours and 20 minutes on Monday, April 27, 2026, local time.
"It was an incredible level of play. He played tennis very well. I feel just lucky in some shots in the third set," said Sabalenka, quoted from the WTA official website.
This victory makes Sabalenka keep her hopes of getting her fourth trophy from this tournament. In addition, this result makes her successful in increasing her win-loss record to 2-1 against the Japanese player.
One other victory he had previously won was at the 2026 WTA 1000 Indian Wells event which took place last month. Osaka's one victory was at the 2018 US Open Grand Slam.
"I felt a little overwhelmed at Indian Wells. Here I played a little better. Obviously he is the number one player in the world. So, this is a really cool match for me to know that I'm at the same level," said Osaka.
The result against Osaka made Sabalenka advance to the 17th consecutive quarterfinal on the WTA Tour. The 27-year-old has not lost before that round since being defeated by Clara Tauson in the third round of Dubai 2025.
Sabalenka will next face Hailey Baptiste. The 24-year-old American has earned a ticket to the quarterfinals after defeating Belinda Bencic in a three-set match.
Unfortunately, different journeys had to be taken by world number two Elena Rybakina and world number three Coco Gauff. Both failed to keep their hopes alive at this clay court tournament.
Rybakina returned from the tournament after losing to Anastasia Potapova with a score of 6-7(10) and 4-6. Meanwhile, Gauff was ousted by Czech Republic's Linda Noskova, through a three-set battle that ended 4-6, 6-1, and 6-7(7).
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