Saturday quarter-finals and semi-finals in one day!

The road to the title at the ecotrans Ladies Open is tough. "Because we have a Grand Slam field," says Tournament Director Barbara Rittner. Now it will be even tougher. At Grand Slam tournaments, three sets won are enough to prevail. The rain in Berlin on Friday has now meant that some of the biggest stars will need to win four sets on Saturday to be successful: they have to play the quarter-finals and semi-finals on one day. What an endurance test for the players - and what a tennis festival for the fans in the stands of the Steffi Graf Stadium at LTTC "Rot-Weiß" e. V.

Two quarter-finals will be played in their entirety on Saturday: Coco Gauff against Ons Jabeur(winner in 2022) and Aryna Sabalenka against Anna Kalinskaya. The quarter-final duel between Jessica Pegula and Katerina Siniakova will also be completed.
After the quarter-finals, the semi-finals will follow.

Fourth seed Pegula and qualifier Siniakova, who has been so impressive on the Berlin grass court so far, had each won a set (7:6, 3:6). Pegula was leading 3:0 in the third set when Siniakova twisted her ankle. Fortunately, the match continued after a break for treatment - until rain forced another interruption when the score was 4:2 in Pegula's favor.

One of the title favorites, world number three Elena Rybakina, had to retire very early. The score was 1:3 and 15:15 in the first set against Victoria Azarenka. Suddenly, Rybakina had to leave the court very quickly. Extreme abdominal pain forced her to give up.

But the tennis continued nonetheless. Certainly not quite at world-class level, but the spontaneous reaction was world-class. Victoria Azarenka and her seven-year-old son Leo played a little mixed doubles match against two spectators just like that! The audience was thrilled. And afterwards, mom Victoria, the gold medal winner in mixed doubles at the 2012 Olympic Games, revealed: "Leo would like my gold medal to hang in his room." But he won't get his wish. Mom Azarenka explains: "I think you should win your own trophies." The one in Berlin is still two wins away for her.

Azarenka will play the winner of the match between Aryna Sabalenka and Anna Kalinskaya in the final round. The winners of the Gauff/Jabeur and Pegula/Siniakova duels will therefore contest the second semi-final.

The matches start on Saturday at 11.30 am