In the day’s first semifinal, the Porsche Friend Iga Swiatek und Elena Rybakina produced a two hour 49 minute epic in front of another capacity 4,200 Porsche Arena crowd. Rybakina, who triumphed at Wimbledon in 2022, won 6-3, 4-6, 6-3. She therefore handed the world No. 1 her first ever loss in the Porsche Arena after a ten-match winning streak. “It was a very tough match but my serve helped me a lot today. I’m basically really happy with my performance,” said the 24-year-old Kazakh who sent down an impressive 10 aces. “We both try to push each other, which is why it’s extremely difficult to dominate the rallies. We both push each other all the time.”
For the four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, the result ended the dream of a title hat-trick in Stuttgart. The 22-year-old walked off court to thunderous applause. “She simply played better than me today, that’s all,” said the Porsche Friend Swiatek before adding self-critically, “As for myself, it was clearly not enough.”
In the second semifinal, Marta Kostyuk continued her winning run. The Ukrainian again lived up to her giant-killer status when knocking Marketa Vondrousova, the world No. 8, out of the tournament. It was her third win over a Top 10 player this week. In contrast to her matches against the world No. 7 Qinwen Zheng and the No. 3 seeded US Open champion Coco Gauff (USA), the 21-year-old Ukrainian this time did not require three sets. Instead, in a match lasting one hour and 35 minutes, the world No. 27 was a straight-set 7-6(2), 6-2 winner which has put her in the final scheduled for Sunday at 1 o’clock.
“I’m so happy to have won this time in two sets,” said Kostyuk in the on-court interview after the match. “I can well remember losing my first 14 matches against Top 10 players. That I’ve now beaten three in a week is pretty crazy.”
Attractive doubles final
The Porsche Tennis Grand Prix is only the second tournament in which Veronika Kudermetova and Hao-Ching Chan (Taipei) have teamed up for the doubles. It has however not stopped them from storming to the final. In the day’s first match on Centre Court in the Porsche Arena, they ran out comfortable 6-4, 6-3 winners against Bethanie Mattek-Sands from USA and the Chinese Shuai Zhang. In Sunday’s final following the singles, they will face Ulrikke Eikeri (Norway) and Ingrid Neel (Estonia) who have reached the final by virtue of a walkover. The No. 2 seeds Barbora Krejcikova (Czech Republic) and Laura Siegemund were forced to withdraw as the local hero from Porsche Team Germany was unable to play due to a lower back injury.
