Tennis-Third seed Pegula tumbles out of Berlin Open, Sabalenka's match suspended

Hindustan Times

6 hours ago

BERLIN (Reuters) -Aryna Sabalenka was a set up against Switzerland's Rebeka Masarova at the Berlin Open on Wednesday when the match was suspended due to slippery conditions, as the world number one started her grasscourt season less than two weeks after her French Open final loss.
The top seed, who had taken a short holiday to Greece after her bitter three-set loss to Coco Gauff in Paris, looked at ease on the surface, quickly taking a 3-0 lead.
She was never really troubled by the big-serving Swiss and broke her again to seal the set 6-2 when Masarova sent a forehand wide.
But the match was then stopped after brief discussions with the players, with organisers saying conditions were getting too slippery in some areas of the court as the sun went down and humidity increased.
Sabalenka did not seem to agree, asking the tournament official at one point "so you are stopping the match?"
The winner of the match that will resume tomorrow will face either Czech Katerina Siniakova or world number 11 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the quarter-finals.
For third seed and defending champion Jessica Pegula it was a day to forget after the American wasted two matchpoints before losing to 2021 champion Liudmila Samsonova 6-7(8) 7-5 7-6(5) in a marathon match that lasted three hours and 21 minutes.
The Russian, who will face either Poland's Magdalena Frech or American Amanda Anisimova next, put her thunderous first serve to good use for much of the match, firing a total of 18 aces to Pegula's two.
Samsonova had enough opportunities to seal the first set but she squandered a total of four set points at 5-4 and 6-5 up, with Pegula snatching it in a tiebreak. The pair held serve until Samsonova broke her opponent at 5-5 to level.
Pegula trailed 4-2 in the third but dug deep to win the next three games and even carved out two match points at 5-4.
Samsonova, however, held firm to force another tiebreak and earned her quarter-final spot on her own first match point.
Tunisia's Ons Jabeur, who slipped into the main draw as a lucky loser, booked her spot in the quarter-finals with a 6-1 6-3 thumping of world number five Jasmine Paolini.
The two-time Wimbledon finalist and a winner in Berlin in 2022, earned her first top five win in almost two years and looks right at home on grass with the year's third Grand Slam in London less than two weeks away.
It was also the first time since February that the 61st-ranked Jabeur won consecutive matches in the main draw of a tournament.
She will face either Marketa Vondrousova or Russian Diana Shnaider in the last eight.
Eighth seed Paula Badosa of Spain also punched her quarter-final ticket with a 7-6(2) 6-3 win over American Emma Navarro.
(Reporting by Karolos Grohmann, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)