Aryna Sabalenka has reacted after her title defence at the Madrid Open ended with a shock quarter-final defeat to Hailey Baptiste.<\/p>\n
The world No 1 was beaten 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(6) by 32nd-ranked Baptiste on Manolo Santana Stadium court on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka<\/a> was unable to convert six match points in the third set \u2014 five on Baptiste\u2019s serve when leading 5-4 and one when serving at 6-5 in the tiebreak.<\/p>\n The 27-year-old Belarusian was chasing her fourth title at the Madrid Open after triumphing at the WTA 1000 tournament in 2021, 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n The four-time major champion\u2019s defeat was just her second loss of 2026 and her first since she fell to Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final in January.<\/p>\n Sabalenka had amassed a 15-match winning streak that included her title runs in Indian Wells and Miami and her three wins en route to the quarter-finals in Madrid.<\/p>\n Madrid Open: Hailey Baptiste +8 in WTA Rankings after dramatic Aryna Sabalenka upset<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n How Coco Gauff\u2019s Madrid Open exit affects WTA Rankings as Iga Swiatek gets boost<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Want more from Tennis365? Add us as\u00a0<\/span>a preferred source on Google to your favourites list<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>for tennis coverage you can trust.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a post on her Instagram account after the match, Sabalenka wrote:\u00a0\u201cNot the ending I wanted, but proud of the work I put in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just getting started with clay season. Thank you @mutuamadridopen.\u201d<\/p>\n Here is everything Sabalenka said in her post-match\u00a0press conference.<\/p>\n Q. What made the difference?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sabalenka:<\/strong> \u201cIt was a tough match. She played great, I played great.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I had some opportunities in the third set, and I felt like I was maybe a little bit rushing the points there. But it\u2019s okay, I guess sometimes you have to learn, take the best from this week and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n Q. What was going through your mind on the match points?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sabalenka: <\/strong>\u201cI think she played great points. I mean, I had some opportunities, didn\u2019t use them. She played really brave tennis, I feel like, on those match points.\u201d<\/p>\n Q. What did Baptiste do differently compared to their match in Miami (which Sabalenka won 6-4, 6-4)?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sabalenka: <\/strong>\u201cI feel like, in Miami, I didn\u2019t give her many opportunities \u2014 she couldn\u2019t break my serve, I believe. But here, in the first game second set, I just double faulted twice out of nowhere, and I felt like that gave her belief.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd after that, she started playing more aggressively. As I said, she was playing brave tennis. What can I say? Well done.\u201d<\/p>\n Q. Was there pressure from the winning streak?<\/strong><\/p>\n Sabalenka: <\/strong>\u201cNot really, I was just playing tennis. I was just trying to find a way in this match. It didn\u2019t work today. As I said, never crossed my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n READ NEXT: Madrid Open: Arthur Fils makes defiant statement as he seals +8 ATP Rankings jump<\/a> The post Aryna Sabalenka makes 22-word statement after shock Madrid Open loss to Hailey Baptiste<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Aryna Sabalenka has reacted after her title defence at the Madrid Open ended with a shock quarter-final defeat to Hailey Baptiste. The world No 1 was beaten 6-2, 2-6, 7-6(6) by 32nd-ranked Baptiste on Manolo Santana Stadium court on Tuesday evening. Sabalenka was unable to convert six match points in the third set \u2014 five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2104\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Madrid Open News<\/h2>\n
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