Aryna Sabalenka, the World No. 1, will attempt to win her first Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in her fourth attempt on Monday in Stuttgart, Germany.
She reached the final for the fourth time in five years on Sunday with a 7-5, 6-4 semifinal win over No. 5 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in one hour, 35 minutes.
Both players jumped out to 3-0 leads in the two sets — Sabalenka in the first and Paolini in the second. Paolini fought back to even the match at 5-5 and was serving with a chance to win the first set, but Sabalenka broke serve and served for the set.
In the second set, it was Sabalenka, of Belarus, who made the lead disappear. And she broke the Italian — serving at 4-4 — and then served out the match.
In the final, Sabalenka will meet Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia, who bounced Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-4 in the other semifinal. Sabalenka has a career 3-0 record against Ostapenko, including a clay-court match in Rome last season.
Ostapenko won the 2017 French Open — her only career grand slam title — on the clay courts at Roland Garros in Paris. Sabalenka, who has won three majors, has never advanced past the semifinals at the French Open.
Open Capfinances Rouen Metropole
No. 1 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine continued to show her strength on clay, defeating No. 3 seed Olga Danilovic of Serbia 6-4, 7-6 (8) to win the championship on Sunday in Rouen, France.
It was the 18th career title for Svitolina – the seventh on clay – and the first since May 2023. She needed just shy of two hours to defeat Danilovic of Serbia but had to save two set points in the tiebreaker to have a chance to win on her fourth match point.
Svitolina has played in 22 career WTA finals, losing only four times. She did not lose a set all week.
–Field Level Media
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