ARYNA Sabalenka has become accustomed to coming from behind in order to post a win over her opponent in Ostrava. Having to do it against Coco Gauff in the Round of 16, the Belarusian seed has done it again in the quarter finals, but this time in very odd circumstances.

Taking on Spanish qualifier Sara Sorribes Tormo, Sabalenka lost the first 10 games of the match and was a point away from going 6-0 5-0 down against the world number 73, before getting on the board and then winning the next 12 consecutive games herself to record a 0-6 6-4 6-0 game in no doubt one of the strangest matches in history.

The match lasted two hours and three minutes, with the massive momentum swing evident as Sorribes Tormo had all the control early with the third seed hitting just six winners in the first set. From then, she hit home 41 winners to finish with 47 for the match. By comparison, the counter-punching Spaniard had just 10 winners for the entire match and only 14 unforced errors after only one in the first set.

It took until the 11th game for Sabalenka to get on the board, but the talented 22-year-old kept pushing and showed just what she can do with one of the all-time memorable wins on the WTA Tour. Now she takes on American Jennifer Brady who also had a tough time of dispatching Russian qualifier, Veronika Kudermetova.

Brady won 6-7 6-3 6-1 in an hour and 57 minutes as the US Open semi-finalist reached another final four with a come-from-behind win. The world number 26 finished with 27 winners of which 14 were aces, as she dominated the first serve delivery with 83 per cent of points off a 66 per cent clip. Kudermetova had 31 winners, but was also a lot looser with her shots, recording 38 unforced errors and the six winner and four double faults.

A third come-from-behind winner was Greece’s Maria Sakkari who had to work overtime to put away Tunisian Ons Jabeur in three sets. Sakkari won 3-6 6-3 6-1 in an hour and 38 minutes. Having not reached the final four of a tournament since February, Sakkari achieved the feat today despite trailing a set and 0-2 against the in-form Jabeur. Like Sabalenka, the talented 23-year-old rolled off 12 of the last 14 games – dropping just one game in each of the remaining two sets to take out the win.

“I think that Ons, she came up with some tricky shots in the first set – I couldn’t really find a way to make her life tougher,” Sakkari said post-match. “But just the fact that I know I can stay on court for a long time gives me a lot of help and hope, so I just said, stay with her, stay with her, and finally I got that break I was looking for – and things got better for me after that.”

Now Sakkari faces the in-form Victoria Azarenka in the semi-finals, someone she is very much looking forward to taking on, and for the first time in the Greek talent’s career.

Vika is a great champion, she has achieved unbelievable things in tennis,” Sakkari said. “It’s going to be a very tough match for me, but I’m really looking forward to it.”

Picture: Jimmie48 / WTA