The defense of the title of reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka ended abrupt in Cincinnati while Elena Rybakina produced a powerful performance to reach the semi-final.
The ninth seeded Kazakh Star dominated from the very beginning, using its great service and its clean strike to overwhelm the defending champion and reserve its place in the last four.
She won her seventh career victory over a leading player and set up a successful confrontation with the Iga Swiatek in Poland in a confrontation of the Champions of Wimbledon.
Rybakina pulled 11 AS throughout the match, winning 81% of the points on her first service, while saving the five break points she faced when she won her fifth victory against Sabalenka in 12 games.
“I am satisfied with the service. It was the key,” said former world number Rybakina.
“We are both big strikers. Today, I served very well. If Aryna is well, it’s completely different. I hope I will continue like that.”
Earlier, the third head of Swiatek qualified for its first semi-final WTA 1000 in 15 months, beating Anna Kalinskaya 6-3 from Russia.
Kalinskaya, who had defeated Swiatek in their only previous meeting, organized an animated fight by saving four match points, before the winner of the Grand Colam of the Six times converted his fifth opportunity in service to seal the victory.
“I just played my game,” said Swiatek. “Of course, it was not easy. Just happy to have been solid and have the intensity to apply the pressure.”
Veronika Kudermetova exceeded Varvara Gracheva 6-1 6-2 to reach her first semi-final of Cincinnati. The Russian seems to be back to the form which once brought it in the top 10, which obtained its first place from the WTA 1000 to the last since 2023.
She will then face the second coconut Gauff seed or the seventh seeded Jasmine Paolini in the semi-finals.
In the male draw, the second seeded Carlos Alcaraz survived a battle in three sets against the ninth Russian seeded Andrey Rublev, winning a 6-3 7-5 victory to reach the last four.
The Spaniard was far from his best, making 15 uns forked errors and three double defects in the decision maker, but capitalizing on his only match point, graceful of a double fault of Rublev, to guarantee his 15th consecutive victory Masters 1000.
“Playing someone like Andrey, when you lose accent on two or three points, it can cost you the set or the match. I stayed very mentally and that is what I am most proud of,” said Alcaraz.
“It’s just accepting the moment, accepting that I play a third set, that it will be a really difficult battle, and I love it,” he added after having set up a confrontation with the third seeded Alex Zverev or the fifth American seeded Ben Shelton.
The champion of the Grand Chelem Five-Times Alcaraz, winner of 37 of his last 39 games, qualified for his 12th Masters 1000 Semi, equaling the mark of the Italian seeded Jannik Sinner, who faces the French Terence Atmane in the other confrontation of the last four.
