29/04 Madrid Open

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Ace Cream's daily newsletter during Masters 1000 and Grand Slams, every morning at 8:30.

Today is Wednesday, April 29th, in Madrid it's 08:30 and it's 17 degrees. Ok, let's get started.

Today on the menu

• 🇺🇸 Baptiste saves six match points against Sabalenka and reaches the semifinal
• 🇮🇹 Cobolli beats Medvedev and earns his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal
• 🇩🇪 Zverev edges Mensik in three sets: tomorrow's quarterfinal against Cobolli
• 🇮🇹 Sinner dispatches Norrie, today's quarterfinal against home favorite Jodar
• 🇳🇴 Ruud saves two match points and overcomes Tsitsipas in three sets

WHAT HAPPENED YESTERDAY:

🇺🇸 Baptiste Saves Six Match Points Against Sabalenka

Hailey Baptiste defeated Aryna Sabalenka 2-6 6-2 7-6(6) in two and a half hours, saving six match points and snapping a fifteen-match winning streak by the world number one. For the American, ranked 32nd, it's her first career win against a top 5 player and her second top 10 win this week, after beating Paolini.

More than the score, what stands out is how Baptiste held the match together in the deciding tiebreak: a running lob after a drop shot, twelve aces, six breaks against a player who in Madrid rarely concedes six breaks across an entire tournament. Andreeva now awaits her in the semifinal, against whom she lost convincingly at Wimbledon last year, but this is a week that seems to have changed something about the references she carries onto the court.

🇮🇹 Cobolli Earns His First Masters 1000 Quarterfinal

Flavio Cobolli defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3 5-7 6-4 in two hours and eighteen minutes, claiming the first Masters 1000 quarterfinal of his career. It's his second top 10 win in ten days, after beating Zverev in Munich, and it comes on a surface that until a few weeks ago seemed the least suited to his tennis.

What's changing in these weeks for Cobolli is how he handles uncomfortable moments: in the second set Medvedev had returned to playing in the style that won him a Slam, and usually in those minutes opponents stop finding the court. Flavio instead stayed on the baseline, waited for the break in the third set, and when it came he managed it without flinching. Tomorrow he's back in action for the quarterfinal, again against Zverev, ten days after Munich: a rematch that weighs double in Madrid, because this time the German has already gone through three sets of battle to get there.

🇩🇪 Zverev Edges Mensik In Three Sets

Alexander Zverev defeated Jakub Mensik 6-4 6-7 6-3 in a match played late in the evening on the Manolo Santana, extending a historic run in Madrid: in nine appearances at the tournament he has always reached at least the round of 16. The second set was the moment when the tournament risked turning around: Mensik won the tiebreak and entered the third with a hot serve, but Zverev found the break early and never looked back.

For Zverev it's a week that continues to feel like the best of 2026 on clay, and his redemption from the semifinal lost in Munich against Cobolli comes in record time: tomorrow's rematch in the Madrid quarterfinals. For Mensik, there's the sense of a tournament that's already more mature than Miami when it comes to handling uncomfortable moments, but of a player who at the end of a match still ends up a few points short when his opponent's serve is firing on all cylinders.

🇮🇹 Sinner Dispatches Norrie In Two Sets

Jannik Sinner defeated Cameron Norrie 6-2 7-5 in one hour and twenty-seven minutes, extending his winning streak in Masters 1000 events to twenty-five. The first set was a formality, the second got complicated at 5-5 with the Brit raising his first-serve level, but Jannik found the break in the twelfth game and closed it out on serve without conceding a break point.

More than the match itself, what matters is the sense that the tournament, after a first-round match against Bonzi played below his level, is settling into the right rhythm. Today it's Jodar's turn, the nineteen-year-old Spaniard who is living the week that changes a career in Madrid, and it will be the first time Sinner plays as world number one against a home favorite with the entire stadium against him. Matches like this, especially at this stage of the season, often say more than the final score might suggest.

🇳🇴 Ruud Saves Two Match Points Against Tsitsipas

Casper Ruud defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7(4) 7-6(2) 7-6(3) in nearly three hours, saving two match points at 3-5 in the third set with the Greek serving for the match and then winning the deciding tiebreak. It's one of the matches of the week, and probably the one that took the most energy out of the Norwegian heading into the rest of the tournament.

For Tsitsipas it's the end of a week that seemed it could bring him back to the level of a year and a half ago, and during which he managed to lift his backhand enough to hold his own against Ruud for two hours. For the Norwegian, it's the price to pay for staying in contention to defend his title: tomorrow's quarterfinal against Blockx, but with the sense that certain three-set wars leave marks that show up in later rounds.

🎾 Andreeva Into The Semifinal, Musetti Out Of Madrid

Mirra Andreeva defeated Leylah Fernandez 7-6(1) 6-3, reaching the semifinal where she'll face Baptiste. For the Russian, who turns nineteen today, it's her first career semifinal in Madrid, and the way she handled the first-set tiebreak makes her look like a player who has moved past the phase where age was still an acceptable excuse.

On the Italian front, it was a rough evening for Lorenzo Musetti, eliminated by Jiri Lehecka 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour. The Czech didn't concede a single break point and never lost serve, in a match where Lorenzo's backhand never found the right depth. It's one of those afternoons that helps you understand where the level really is, and for Musetti the break before Rome now carries a different weight.

WHAT'S HAPPENING TODAY:

• Pliskova vs Potapova (WTA) - Opens the program on the Manolo Santana at 13:00. Quarterfinal between the Czech, in a Madrid that feels like one last grand stage, and the Russian lucky loser who knocked out Rybakina in the round of 16: a clash of generations that on tour had crossed paths only at Doha 2024, in three sets won by the Czech.
• Sinner vs Jodar (ATP) - On the Manolo not before 16:00. Quarterfinal between the world number one and the nineteen-year-old Spanish wildcard, in his first deep run in a Masters 1000. The home crowd factor here weighs as much as a mini-break.
• Kostyuk vs Noskova (WTA) - Quarterfinal from the other half of the draw, with the Czech coming off her win over Gauff and the Ukrainian playing a brand of tennis in Madrid very close to her natural ceiling.
• Lehecka vs Fils (ATP) - Evening session on the Manolo Santana, around 21:30. Quarterfinal that pulls from the two breakouts of the tournament, with Fils trying to close out his first deep Masters 1000 week.

Read more

• Hailey Baptiste stuns Aryna Sabalenka in unforgettable quarter-final showdown
• Cobolli into the quarterfinals at the Madrid Open: Medvedev beaten in three sets
• Sinner into the quarterfinals at ATP Madrid: Norrie beaten 6-2, 7-5
• Musetti eliminated in the round of 16 at ATP Madrid: Lehecka wins 6-3, 6-3
• Ruud defeats Tsitsipas in Madrid after an epic match
• Wednesday April 29th Order of Play at Mutua Madrid Open 2026

Enjoy your breakfast and have a great day.

See you tomorrow at 08:30 with TIE-Breakfast