No.2 seed Aryna Sabalenka overpowered No.9 seed Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1 in the semifinals on Thursday to advance to the final at the Madrid Open for the second time in the past three years, here.
The Tuesday morning session at the Madrid Open tennis tournament was not a good one for Russian seeds Danil Medvedev and Andrey Rublev, who both crashed out of the tournament in straight-set defeats in the Round of 16.
In Madrid, the Spanish teenager defeated Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic back-to-back before thrashing Alexander Zverev in the final on Sunday for his fourth title of the year.
The 34-year-old Serbian was aiming to reach a record-extending 55th ATP Masters 1000 final, but was unable to overcome the 19-year-old Alcaraz, who will try and win his second Masters 1000 crown on Sunday against the world No. 3 Zverev.
Djokovic struck the ball with relentless depth, accuracy and power as he controlled points with his watertight groundstrokes to advance after 78 minutes and improve his perfect ATP Head-to-Head series record against Hurkacz to 4-0.
The 31-year-old Djokovic, who has won the last three Grand Slam events (2018 Wimbledon, 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open) but struggled with his game in March and April, earned his best clay-court victory of the season in a match filled with grueling baseline rallies, Efe news reported.
The absence of the Australian presents a chance to world No. 89 Aleksandr Dolgopolov.
The Madrid Open was won by Rafael Nadal, who defeated Dominic Thiem to clinch his fifth title.
Djokovic recently broke off his association with his entire coaching staff.
Kerber had assured her place as world number one by her performances in the Madrid Open last week.
