'I just had to grind': Baptiste upsets Navarro in Abu Dhabi three-setter

Hailey Baptiste regrouped to come away with a 7-6(6), 0-6, 6-3 upset of No. 4 seed Emma Navarro in the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open quarterfinals, the fourth Top 20 win of her career.

Abu Dhabi: Scores | Draws | Order of play

The American wild card edged through a tense first set by finding her best touch at the right moment -- a finely angled volley to save set point in the tiebreak, then a drop shot to convert her own. That form deserted her in the second set, in which she won just nine points. By the end of it, Baptiste was struggling to find the court, and her frustration was evident.

"I just had to grind and keep digging and digging," she said in her on-court interview. "Obviously the second set was not great for me, but I'm really happy I was able to turn it around. I just left the court to reset, I didn't really tell myself much -- I never really leave the court, so me doing that was enough to reset."

Indeed it was. Baptiste's game clicked throughout the decider -- not just the intermittent flashes of brilliance that she'd shown in the first set, but sustained and reliable aggression. At 4-3, she hammered a bold inside-in forehand winner en route to the only break of the set; she closed out the win with ruthless efficiency, slamming her seventh ace and then an emphatic smash on the last two points.

The result was a milestone win on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz for Baptiste, who advances to her first WTA 500 quarterfinal, and first tour-level quarterfinal since Auckland last year. Last month, she reached the third round of the Australian Open, where she stretched Coco Gauff to three sets.

Baptiste also snapped a three-match losing streak against Navarro. She had won their first encounter, all the way back in qualifying for the Baton Rouge ITF W25 in 2018, but had not won a set in three subsequent meetings. This was the first time the two compatriots had played outside the United States.

Another American, McCartney Kessler, also took out a seed on Tuesday. The World No. 32 delivered a superb showcase of front-foot tennis to overpower No. 6 seed Leylah Fernandez in 1 hour and 20 minutes.

However, No. 5 seed Liudmila Samsonova, the 2023 runner-up, advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 dispatch of Indonesia's Janice Tjen, and will be Baptiste's next opponent. No. 3 seed Clara Tauson also eased past qualifier Simona Waltert 6-3, 6-1, and will face Kessler next.