Andreeva saves three set points, holds off Baptiste to make Madrid final

A day after celebrating her 19th birthday, ninth-seeded Mirra Andreeva delivered an impressive performance to defeat 30th-seeded Hailey Baptiste in straight sets and advance to the final of the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday. With the result, Andreeva becomes the first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals since the format’s introduction in 2009. She will face 26th-seeded Marta Kostyuk in the final.

The win was her 12th victory on clay this year, the most by any player on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz in 2026. It was also her 26th win of the season and guarantees she will climb back to No. 7 in the PIF WTA Rankings next week, regardless of the result in the final.

Andreeva's serve key to first-set dominance

The 19-year-old used her serve to tremendous effect on Thursday. She won 20 of 22 points on her serve across five service games in the first set — at one point winning 15 straight points on serve. The numbers were staggering. She landed 77% of her first serves and won 100% of those points. In contrast, Baptiste made just 53% of her first serves and won 61% of those points. A single break of serve was enough for Andreeva to take the set 6-4.

Baptiste fights back from match point down

The second set followed similar lines. Andreeva broke in the fifth game and continued to dominate on serve, dropping just four points to lead 5-3.

Down 5-3, Baptiste found herself facing match point in the ninth game. She saved it and held for 5-4 but still needed a way to break Andreeva’s serve. She got her chance with some help from her opponent: Andreeva missed an easy overhead at 30-15 and went on to lose her serve, allowing Baptiste to level the set at 5-5.

Andreeva turns it around from set points down

Playing with renewed confidence, Baptiste jumped to a 4-0 lead in the second set tiebreak. Although Andreeva fought back to 4-4, Baptiste played aggressively to move ahead 6-4 and earn two set points.

This time, it was Andreeva’s turn to flip the script. She saved both set points, including one with a lob that landed just inside the baseline, and another at 6-7 with an ace.

Andreeva earned a second match point, only to see Baptiste save it with an ace. A backhand winner down the line gave Andreeva a third match point, and this time she converted, closing out a 6-4, 7-6 victory in 1 hour, 39 minutes.

"Obviously when it was 5-3 and she was serving, I told myself that I would really try to win this game and break her and win the match," Andreeva told the media. "After, I felt like maybe I got a little bit passive, but she also hit a couple of winners after I had the match point, so there was nothing really that I could do. When I was serving for the match, everyone gets a little bit nervous, and I made a couple of mistakes after serving great. So, this stuff happens and I guess the most important is how you recover after that.

"Then after in the tiebreak I just tried to really, after when it was 4-0, I just really tried to win one point. And then after one point I said to myself, Okay, let's win another one. I just tried to play point by point, and I guess that's how I came back in the tiebreak as well."

"I don't consider myself the favorite" - Andreeva on the final

Andreeva, the highest-ranked player left in the tournament, said she will not watch the second semifinal between Kostyuk and Potapova and will leave the scouting to her coach, Conchita Martinez. However, she has played both potential opponents as recently as this year. She trails 1-0 head-to-head against Kostyuk and has won three of four WTA-level meetings against Potapova.

"I don't consider myself the favorite for the match because I know that whoever gets to the final is a tough opponent," she added. "I've learned not to care about the rankings of my opponent or the last name of my opponent as well. I'm just going to try to go on court and do the things that I have to do to really focus on the game plan that we create with Conchita, and that's the only thing I can control.

"I cannot control the future. I cannot control the results, the outcome, so that doesn't depend on me. In the final I will just try to do everything that is, that I can control, and then we will see what's going to happen."