Ashleigh Barty will face the only woman on the WTA Tour to have beaten her since February after the world number one set up a Madrid Open semi-final with Paula Badosa.
Barty took her winning streak on the red clay to 15, overcoming ninth seed Petra Kvitova 6-1 3-6 6-3 to reach the last four in Madrid for the first time.
Among active players, the Australian's red-clay run is bettered only by Serena Williams (32 matches in 2013-14) and Sara Errani (16 in 2012).
The 2019 French Open champion is 24-3 for the season and has now won her last 10 matches against top-20 opponents and five of the last six with Kvitova.
Kvitova's hopes of claiming a rare win over Barty were boosted when she sent the match to a decider, but Barty took her formidable record in three-setters this year to 11-1.
"It's just always staying in the fight," Barty said of her performance in deciders this season. "Always staying in the hunt and never letting it slide away.
"That certainly doesn't guarantee results, doesn't guarantee success. It guarantees you give yourself the best chance to do what you do and to figure it out and to find your way."
Finding her way on the WTA Tour is 23-year-old Badosa, who moved up to a career-high ranking of 62 after a run to the semi-finals in Charleston last month.
She defeated Barty in straight sets en route to the last four having beaten Belinda Bencic earlier in the tournament.
Badosa got the better of Bencic again on home soil on Wednesday, prevailing 6-4 7-5, the Swiss paying the price for a string of unforced errors at the end of each set.
"I expect a completely different match," Badosa said of the reunion with Barty.
"She's the number one in the world. Now she knows me. Number one in the world, they don't like to make mistakes two times in a row, so for sure I expect a tough match and completely different to Charleston."
Aryna Sabalenka is through to the semi-finals after Elise Mertens retired from their clash with a thigh injury. Sabalenka had held a commanding 6-1 4-0 lead.
She will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who is into her first WTA 1000 semi in over a decade after recording her fourth top-25 win of the week by defeating Karolina Muchova in straight sets.
At L'Open 35 de Saint-Malo, sixth seed Arantxa Rus and seventh seed Jasmine Paolini each lost in the round of 16 but fifth seed Viktorija Golubic fought back to defeat Greet Minnen in three sets.
Winning Olympic medal 'equal to Grand Slams', says Gauff
Coco Gauff believes winning a medal at the forthcoming Paris Olympics would be "equal" to winning a Grand Slam.
The world number three was forced to miss the Games in Tokyo three years ago after testing positive for COVID-19, and is eager to sample the "once-in-a-lifetime experience".
The tennis events will be played on the clay of Roland Garros, where Gauff will be bidding for a second major title at the French Open later this month.
And the reigning US Open champion is looking forward to competing, though she admits her preparations will be unprecedented.
"For me, the Olympics is a top priority. I'd say equal to the Grand Slams," Gauff told reporters at the Italian Open, where she will face Magdalena Frech in the last 64.
"I wouldn't put it above or below just because I've never played before. This is my first time. Obviously, I always want to do well, try to get a medal. But the preparation is going to be interesting, because I've never done the grass to clay transition before.
"I'm not putting too much pressure on it because I really want to fully indulge in the experience. Hopefully, I can have it many times in my lifetime. I'll treat it as a once-in-a-lifetime experience."
Before that, Gauff is focused on getting ready for the French Open, where she was runner-up to world number one Iga Swiatek two years ago.
The 20-year-old will step up her preparation at the Italian Open this week, aiming to build on her run to the round of 16 at the Madrid Open last time out, where her run was ended by compatriot Madison Keys.
"For me, it's just about serving better than I did last week," she added. "I feel the other parts of my game are improving. If I can work that through, I think it'll set me up for a very good Roland Garros."
'We weren't efficient' - Marquinhos bemoans PSG profligacy after Champions League exit
Marquinhos believes Paris Saint-Germain paid for their profligacy after suffering Champions League semi-final heartbreak against Borussia Dortmund.
Mats Hummels' second-half header from a Julian Brandt corner - the only goal at Parc des Princes - wrapped up a 2-0 aggregate victory for the Bundesliga side, who advanced to their third final and first since 2013.
Meanwhile, PSG's wait to land the elusive European crown goes on, despite a whopping 44 shots across the two legs, while they also struck the woodwork on six occasions - their overall tally of 14 the most recorded by a team during a single campaign.
Indeed, Luis Enrique's side failed to find the net in a home match for the first time since their 0-0 draw with Lorient in their first Ligue 1 match of the season, as their hopes of completing the treble vanished for another year.
"We lacked efficiency," Marquinhos told Canal+. "They scored two goals from corners and a through ball that we had worked on. We had to defend better. These are small details.
"We created chances, a lot more than them. We weren't efficient. They were efficient, they scored two goals and won both matches."
But despite the disappointment, the PSG skipper urged his team-mates to focus on the positives from their run to the semi-finals.
They recovered from a disappointing 4-1 defeat against Newcastle United to finish second behind Dortmund in Group F, before overturning a 4-2 aggregate deficit to deny Barcelona in the quarter-finals.
"There are a lot of things to take away from this competition," Marquinhos added. "At the beginning of the season, no one believed that we would get this far. We've overcome a lot of obstacles, we shouldn't throw everything away now just because we're eliminated.
"You have to remember that it's a new team, with a new coach. There are some positives to bring back for next season. We wanted to go to Wembley for the fans and our families.
"You have to stay calm after the elimination. It's very hard. We've come very close. We had to win tonight and be more efficient."
Madrid champion Swiatek keen to maintain level at Italian Open
Iga Swiatek will not rest on her laurels after overcoming Aryna Sabalenka in last week's Madrid Open final, pledging to learn from that gruelling battle ahead of the Italian Open.
Swiatek toppled Sabalenka in an enthralling battle between the world's top two players on Saturday, saving three championship points en route to a 7-5 4-6 7-6 (9-7) win in over three hours on court.
The world number one has now won every European clay court tournament at WTA 500 level or higher, including back-to-back triumphs in Rome in 2021 and 2022.
As she prepares to open her Italian Open campaign against either Caroline Dolehide or a qualifier on Friday, Swiatek is determined to ensure she does not let her level drop.
Speaking during an appearance on the WTA Insider Podcast, Swiatek said: "I feel like after such a match, I deserve a two-month vacation, but I can't have that so I'll trade it for six tiramisus or something!
"I can let it go and rest and just forget about it, or I can really take a big lesson from it, so it depends on what is going to happen in the next few weeks in terms of how I analyse it."
Swiatek's latest win – her seventh in 10 meetings with Sabalenka – saw her put further distance between herself and the world number two in the WTA rankings.
However, the four-time grand slam champion knows she cannot afford to let up, given the fierce competition on the WTA tour.
"I'm not thinking about Aryna when I'm practising, but it's more that I know that the competition is big and if I stop for a while I might be pushed out," Swiatek said.
"But I had this kind of thing in Rome 2022, with the final against Ons [Jabeur]. Physically, I was so tired. The rallies were long, Ons was playing a pretty tricky game.
"So after that game for the next few years, when I was doing the worst practices on court and I was dying, I was thinking about that game."
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