The tennis world was stunned on Tuesday, seeing Hailey Baptiste take down World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid Open quarterfinals. Baptiste saved six match points before completing an insane comeback win.
Baptiste lost the first set 6-2 before storming back to take the second set by the same margin. The third and final set went to a tie break, where Sabalenka was edged out, 7-6 (8-6).
Defending champion Sabalenka suffered only her second loss of the season, also snapping her 15-match winning streak. Meanwhile, Baptiste will be making her first-ever WTA 1000 semifinal appearance and is set to reach a career-high ranking, probably inside the top 25.
Baptiste took to Instagram after her emphatic win, sharing photos from the match.
Under the comments section, several tennis players reacted in praise for Baptiste.
“unreal hailey 🔥🔥🔥,” Coco Gauff, who has already been eliminated, commented.
“Llllloooyddddd,” Frances Tiafoe wrote.
“UNREAL 😮💨,” the official Tennis Channel account chimed in.
“What a match 🔥,” the Mubadala Citi DC Open account added.
“Haileyyyyy wow 🔥👏,” fellow player Shelby Rogers posted.
“We were SAT. and. STOOOD!!!” actress Yvonne Orji remarked.
Pegula took to Instagram, resharing Baptiste’s post on her stories as she hyped the fellow American star.
Aryna Sabalenka Has Two Words to Say After Being Upset by Hailey Baptiste
Aryna Sabalenka becomes the latest top-ranked player to be eliminated in the Madrid Open before the semis. Previously, Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula were also eliminated.
Despite the frustrating loss, Sabalenka praised Hailey Baptiste, saying:
“Well done.”
Sabalenka was doing great, but the unforced errors handed her a tough loss. In the post-match interview, Baptiste dropped an insight on her strategy to make World No. 1 feel uncomfortable against her.
“Going in, I definitely wanted to make her feel uncomfortable in any way that I could,” Baptiste said. “Trying to hit drop shots, short slice heavier balls. Just didn’t want to give her rhythm, obviously, because that’s what she loves and that’s what she’s so good at. And in the beginning, it was obviously a little difficult for me to like find the ball and like get comfortable. But once I did, I was, I think, able to execute the game plan really well. And she just was unhappy.”
After this, the Belarusian is expected to participate in Rome and go to the French Open in hopes of returning to finals like last year. Coco Gauff defeated her to win the 2025 Roland Garros.
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