Mayar Sherif defeated Elise Mertens at the Madrid Masters on Monday to become the first Egyptian to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA 1000 event.
World No 59 Sherif edged out former Australian Open semi-finalist Mertens 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 in a two-hour, 53-minute rollercoaster clash in the Spanish capital.
The 26-year-old trailblazer became the first player from her country to crack the top 100 in August 2021, to break the top 50 in May 2022, and to win a WTA Tour title in Parma last October.
Sherif has beaten Italian Camila Giorgi, Ukrainian Anhelina Kalinina, French No 5 seed Caroline Garcia and now 24th seed Mertens on her run to the last eight in Spain.
Next up, though, will be the formidable challenge of second seed Aryna Sabalenka who ended 16-year-old wild card Mirra Andreeva's run in Madrid with a 6-3, 6-1 victory in the fourth round on Monday.
Australian Open champion Sabalenka is in excellent form having reached at least the quarter-final stage at all seven tournaments she has contested in 2023, with her record standing this season standing at 26-4.
Andreeva, the youngest player yet to reach the last-16 of a WTA 1000 event, lost for the first time in a professional match this year. After winning consecutive ITF events in April, the teenager defeated former US Open finalist Leylah Fernandez, Beatriz Haddad Maia and Magda Linette in Madrid to take her winning streak to 16 matches.
The Russian became the third 15-year-old to win a WTA 1000 main draw match when she beat Fernandez and went on to beat two top 20 players in Brazilian Maia and, on her 16th birthday, Linette of Poland.
But the power and experience of Sabalenka – it was the first time Andreeva had played a top-10 player – proved too much, with the 2021 champion hitting 28 winners compared to her opponent's tally of 14.
The Belarusian, who lost to Iga Swiatek in the final of her last tournament in Stuttgart, said: “Of course I'm happy with the win, I wish I would have played at Madrid when I was 16.
“I think my first few games I was trying to adjust for her rhythm and her game, and then I kept trying to play my game, be aggressive and fight for every point.”
In the men's draw, Russia's Daniil Medvedev edged out his friend and countryman Alexander Shevchenko 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 to reach the fourth round.
Shevchenko, 22, who appeared to struggle with cramps towards the end of the match, took a 5-1 lead in the first set but went down 5-0 in the second. He then led 2-0 and 4-2 in the decisive set.
“He played well. He’s young, so I’m sure he’s going to [move] up the rankings, especially if he plays like this in this tournament,” Medvedev said of the 96th-ranked Shevchenko, who was making his main-draw debut in Madrid after coming through qualifying.
“It’s always like this. He’s still young so he has a lot of time to go up.
“I practised with him before, I know that he can play very good, so the more consistent he is [and] the more matches he plays like this, maybe next time he’s going to win and the higher he is going to go. I’m very happy that today I managed to beat him.”
Medvedev, who has won consecutive matches in Madrid for the first time and sealed the 300th tour-level victory of his career, will now take on another Russian in unseeded Aslan Karatsev, who defeated Australia's Alex de Minaur 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
