Sabalenka and Gauff crash out in Cincinnati as Alcaraz survives to reach semis

CINCINNATI: World number one Aryna Sabalenka and second-ranked Coco Gauff were sent crashing out of the ATP-WTA Cincinnati Open on Friday as Carlos Alcaraz fought off a fierce challenge from Andrey Rublev to reach the semi-finals.

Top seed and defending champion Sabalenka had no answer for Elena Rybakina, falling to the 2022 Wimbledon champion 6-1, 6-4.

Reigning French Open champion Gauff had 16 double faults in a 2-6, 6-4, 6-3 exit at the hands of seventh-seeded Italian Jasmine Paolini.

Spain’s second-ranked Alcaraz had his difficulties, but he broke Rublev in the final game of a tense duel to emerge a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 winner and will face third-seeded Alexander Zverev, who brought fifth-seeded Toronto champion Ben Shelton’s run to an end with a 6-2, 6-2 victory.

Zverev earned a 4-1 lead in the second set as Shelton angrily tossed his racquet on the changeover, and the 2021 champion polished off the win on a second match point. He now has 24 hours to try to get fit.

“I’m not feeling too great now, but I have a day to get fresh,” Zverev said. “I hope to be at 100%.

“I’m not sure what happened. I felt very well, but at the end of the first set, it got progressively worse. But I’ll do all I can to give it a shot tomorrow.”

Alcaraz was broken while serving for victory at 5-4 in the final set against 11th-ranked Rublev, but he found his focus and used his trademark grit to come through three games later.

He sealed the triumph as an emotional Rublev hit an eighth double-fault on match point.

“I maintained the positive thoughts even if I lost focus a bit in the second set,” said Alcaraz, whose five titles so far this year include the French Open as well as Masters 1000 trophies in Monte Carlo and Rome.