Mirra Andreeva storms into Madrid Open final with straight-sets win

Teenager Mirra Andreeva reached her first Madrid Open final with a composed 6-4 7-6 (10-8) victory over Hailey Baptiste here at Manolo Santana on Thursday.

The 19-year-old Russian will now face Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Anastasia Potapova 6-2 1-6 6-1 to book her place in Saturday’s showpiece.

Ninth seed Andreeva has enjoyed an impressive clay-court campaign, winning 12 of her 13 matches this season.

Her run includes a title in Linz and a semi-final appearance in Stuttgart, and she becomes the first teenager to reach three WTA 1000 finals.

After securing the opening set, Andreeva appeared on course for a straightforward win when serving at 5-4 in the second.

However, Baptiste, who had stunned world number one Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round, fought back to force a tie-break. The American saved three match points before Andreeva held her nerve to close out the contest.

Andreeva says she’s overwhelmed with adrenaline and joy after a nerve-wracking win where her serve helped her save crucial set points.

"Honestly, I feel so much adrenaline inside. I feel like I'm still nervous. I'm just so happy that I won and that I was able to save all those set points," said Andreeva.

"The serve helped me a lot. I'm so, so happy - I cannot really find ways to describe what I'm feeling right now," added Andreeva.

Kostyuk, meanwhile, reached her maiden WTA 1000 final after a fluctuating encounter with Potapova, racing through the deciding set.

In the men’s draw, defending champion Casper Ruud was beaten 6-4 6-4 by Belgium’s Alexander Blockx. Blockx will meet Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals, while top seed Jannik Sinner faces Arthur Fils.