Madrid (Spain) – Beatriz Haddad Maia’s moment of recovery had another positive chapter this Monday. The Brazilian left-hander advanced to the quarterfinals of the WTA 1000 in Madrid, her second significant campaign of the season, by overcoming Greek Maria Sakkari for the fourth consecutive time, with splits of 6/4 and 6/4, after 1h49.
After recording her 11th victory in 23 duels against top 10 level opponents, Bia awaits ranking leader Iga Swiatek, who will later play as a strong favorite against Spain’s Sara Sorribes. The Brazilian has one victory and two defeats against the Pole, having won in Toronto in 2022 and lost in Roland Garros last year and in the United Cup in January. Against Sorribes, Bia has a favorable score of 4 to 2, having won the two most recent matches.
This is the third time that the left-hander from São Paulo has reached the quarterfinals of a 1000-level event in her career, repeating Toronto from 2022 and Rome from last year. His only semi took place in Canada, where he would still go to the decision. Bia also added last year’s Roland Garros semi, when she fell to Swiatek.
In addition to the guaranteed prize of 162 thousand euros, Bia guarantees 215 points in the ranking and thus has a great chance of regaining 13th place. The only threats to this position are now Danielle Collins and Madison Keys, who however will have to win at least two more games.
Sakkari makes a lot of mistakes in the first set
Number 6 in the world, Sakkari was a semifinalist in Madrid last year and was coming from a period of recovery, having reached at least the quarterfinals of his three most recent tournaments, including the final in Indian Wells and the semi in Charleston, an evolution shown since his switch to coach David Witt.
Given the Greek’s attitude of playing short points, Bia looked for longer points at the beginning of the match and it worked very well. Sakkari made too many mistakes, suffered a break in the third game and the Brazilian barely reached 5/1, with vast superiority even with an average success on the first serve.
But from 5/2 onwards the game became more tense. Sakkari reduced the number of errors, calibrated his forehand better and saw Bia fail more. The Brazilian served against the sun in a very long game and found herself more on the defensive, losing serve on the third break-point. The Greek reduced it to 5/4 and Bia experienced a dangerous moment, with a double fault – the fifth of the day so far – and a forehand error, saving herself from a draw thanks to a good first serve. He finally saw another very unbalanced blow from his opponent to close the series.
Bia’s confidence increases
While Sakkari did not hide his frustration, complaining to the referee about the floor, Bia’s confidence increased for the second set. The new break came in the third game, once again counting on the Greek’s haste in the longer exchanges, and then the Brazilian served very well, including ace, to go 3/1.
He repeated his good production on serve in the sixth game, in which he came up with a double fault but reacted well and scored another ace. Under pressure, Sakkari tried to force even more and delivered the serve with many errors. As happened in the first set, Bia had ups and downs with her service when she tried to close with 5/2, going from double fault to ace, and with that the Greek once again got closer on the scoreboard.
With a left hand and a great forehand on the parallel, Bia showed confidence in the final game. He connected 90% of his first serves and settled on the second match point.
