Photo credit: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix Facebook
A trio of parked Porsches gleamed over her shoulder as Aryna Sabalenka downshifted into dominant gear.
Facing a 0-3 deficit, Sabalenka raced through six of the final seven games in a 7-5, 6-4 win over Wimbledon finalist Jasmine Paolini accelerating into her fourth career Stuttgart final.
Sabalenka punished the 5’4” Italian’s second serve winning 11 of 16 points played on Paolini’s second delivery and converting six of her eight break-point chances.
World No. 1 Sabalenka will play for her 20th career title—including a maiden Stuttgart crown and the keys on a Porsche—when she faces Jelena Ostapenko in Monday’s final of major champions.
The 2017 Roland Garros champion Ostapenko broke serve three times defeating Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 6-4 to advance to her 18th career title.
Ostapenko shredded second-ranked Iga Swiatek’s second serve defeating the reigning Roland Garros champion 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 in the quarterfinals to improve to 6-0 lifetime vs. the former No. 1.
Today, Ostapenko backed up that victory with bold drives down the line. In a rematch of the 2024 Linz final, Ostapenko beat Alexandrova for the fourth time in a row—and first time on clay—taking a 6-5 lead in their head-to-head series.
Reigning US Open champion Sabalenka is 3-0 lifetime vs. Ostapenko, including a 6-2, 6-4 sweep in the Rome quarterfinals last May.
Today’s second semifinal was a clash of dueling streaks.
Sabalenka broke immediately rushing to a 3-0 lead she quickly stretched to 5-2.
Though Sabalenka served for the set at 5-2, Paolini wasn’t through.
The woman who won the Olympic doubles gold medal partnering Sara Errani, attacked and blocked a fine forehand volley breaking back at love for 3-5.
An empowered Paolini held in the ninth game.
Because she’s so low to the ground and has soft hands, Paolini is more dangerous than most on the low ball. The French Open finalist showed it digging out a devious running lob that helped her earn another break point. A frustrated Sabalenka fouble faulted wide to gift the break as Paolini leveled for 5-all.
Paolini was two points from a 6-5 lead, but didn’t do enough with a volley down the middle and Sabalenka made her pay.
The top seed swept a backhand winner down the line followed by a forehand return winner slashing through the key break for 6-5. Sabalenka battered out a netted backhand to take the 50-minute opening set.
Despite dropping her seventh straight set to the powerful Belarusian, Paolini was not fazed.
The Italian was firing her forehand with angle and depth darting out to a 3-0 second-set lead.
Though she wasn’t always at her sharpest today when Sabalenka needed to channel her disruptive baseline blasts with control, she did it.
Taking a deep breath, Sabalenka broke back at 15 in the fifth game.
The Belarusian broke at 30 to edge ahead 5-4 then converted her first match point to seal a spot in her fourth Stuttgart final after 95 minutes of play.