WTA Stuttgart: Ostapenko beats Swiatek for six in a row to face Aleksandrova

On April 19, local time, the 2025 WTA500 Stuttgart station will determine the semi-finals. Two-time champion Swiatek lost 3-6, 6-3, 2-6 to bitter Ostapenko, swallowing six straight career defeats against the latter and missing out on qualifying for the semi-finals.

Ostapenko

Photo: Visual China

Although the two sides have met five times before, this is the first time that the two players have faced each other on clay. As the absolute dominant player in women's clay tennis over the past five years, it will be interesting to see if Swiatek can achieve her first career win against Ostapenko on a dominant court.

Ostapenko showed plenty of firepower from the baseline, quickly breaking twice to take a 4-0 lead, and although Swiatek then fought back, it was the former who won the first set 6-3. In the second set, Ostapenko's unforced errors increased, while Swiatek improved her serve and seized the opportunity to level the set at 6-3. In the deciding set, Ostapenko took the lead again in the opening set and finally sealed the victory 6-2.

In his post-match interview, Ostapenko shared: "She's a great clay player, but I've also won the French Open, so I can describe myself as the same. I have a lot of respect for her and her team, and every fight against her is a tough fight, and I'm ready to fight even if I don't feel good that day. I think that mentality helped me to fight to the last point today. ”

Swiatek said after the match: "It was a close match today, so I definitely have a chance to win. It wasn't the same in previous games, where she would attack with all her might and hit every hard shot to perfection. But today she didn't do it, she made some mistakes and I got my chance, I just didn't take it. I didn't think about what I was going to do before the match, I knew what I had to do, and I did what I wanted in the second set, so the problem was that I couldn't stay that way throughout the match. ”

Aleksandrova

Photo: Visual China

Ostapenko will battle Alexandrova for a ticket to the semi-finals, where she swept past third seed Pegula 6-0, 6-4 in the quarter-finals to win two consecutive rounds of the tournament against a top-10 player (fifth win of the season) to reach the semi-finals of the tournament for the first time in her career and reach the WTA semi-finals for the fourth time this year.

The semi-finals of the top half will be between top seed Sabalenka and fifth seed Paulini, with Sabalenka beating Mertens 6-4, 6-1 yesterday and Paulini beating Gauff 6-4, 6-3 to make it their second semi-final at this year's WTA in Miami.

Sabalenka

Photo: Visual China

Paulini

Photo: Visual China

WTA Stuttgart Women's Singles Semifinals:

[1] Sabalenka vs Paulini[5]

Aleksandrova vs Ostapenko

In the semi-finals of the women's doubles, Zhang Shuai/Aleksandrova saved match points in the tie-break in the deciding set, and finally narrowly defeated Merichal/Samsonova 6-4/4-6/13-11, which is Zhang Shuai's second women's doubles final after 2022. In the final, Zhang Shuai will face top seeds Lutliff/Dabrowski.

(Text and editor: Dato)