Tennis: Azarenka and Rybakina qualified, Garcia will try to join them in the semi-finals in Miami

Victoria Azarenka, former world number 1 with 19 years on the WTA circuit, returns to the end of tournaments at the age of 34, and will face Kazakh Elena Rybakina in the semi-final on Thursday. Tuesday, she was able to win after a marathon of almost three hours against another Kazakh, Yulia Putintseva 7-6(4), 1-6, 6-3, to play the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 tournament for the first time since Paris-Bercy in October 2021.

The double Grand Slam winner (Australian Open 2012 and 2013), now 32nd in the world, has 199 WTA 1000 successes, a record, and will aim for a 200th on Thursday to try to return to the Miami final, a tournament she already won three times (2009, 2011 and 2016).

To overcome the Putintseva obstacle (68th player in the world), Azarenka had to manage a long interruption caused by a power outage during the fourth game of the first set. The incident disabled the communication system between the referee and the operators of the “hawkeye” system, which allows them to check whether a ball is good or out of bounds. The game was interrupted for three quarters of an hour.

“Yulia played very well, she is in such good shape and I really had to look far,” commented Azarenka, who has not won a WTA tournament since 2020 (21 titles in total). “I felt like my legs were giving up on me a little bit and I lost a little bit of confidence because she was playing so well, because she was moving me so well on the court. I am happy to have managed to pull myself together,” she added.

In a women's tournament which lost Iga Swiatek (world number 1), Aryna Sabalenka (2nd) and Coco Gauff (3rd), Azarenka can dream big, but will first have to take care of Rybakina, world No.4.

The 24-year-old Kazakh battled for 2 hours and 48 minutes to defeat Greek Maria Sakkari 7-5, 6-7(4), 6-4, who saved four match points, including two in the second set , before finally folding.

On the other side of the table, Caroline Garcia will also try to reach the last four after her unexpected victory against Coco Gauff. To do this, she will have to dominate the American Danielle Collins, who will be able to count on the support of the Florida public. For the moment, the Lyonnaise has three defeats in two sets against the 30-year-old player, always on hard court and twice in the United States. The task promises to be difficult for Garcia, who is nevertheless capable of brilliant strokes.

In the event of victory, the Frenchwoman will face Jessica Pegula (5th) or Ekaterina Alexandrova (16th), who defeated Iga Swiatek in the quarter-finals, in the next round.