{"id":46722,"date":"2026-05-04T06:03:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:03:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/lucky-loser-anastasia-potapova-advances-to-madrid-open-semi-finals\/"},"modified":"2026-05-04T06:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T10:03:56","slug":"lucky-loser-anastasia-potapova-advances-to-madrid-open-semi-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/04\/lucky-loser-anastasia-potapova-advances-to-madrid-open-semi-finals\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Lucky loser&#8217; Anastasia Potapova advances to Madrid Open semi-finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>MADRID &#8211; Anastasia Potapova fell to her knees, put her hands over her face and started crying.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;outburst of emotions in my heart&#8221; came after world No. 56 Potapova defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 at the Madrid Open on Wednesday, becoming the first &#8220;lucky loser&#8221; to reach the semi-finals of a WTA 1000 tournament.<\/p>\n<p>She squandered three match points in the second set and nearly gave up victory in the third, when she had to come back from a 3-1 deficit against the former world No. 1. This was an impressive performance considering Potapova was eliminated in the qualifying tournament and only qualified for the main draw as a so-called lucky loser due to the withdrawal of another player.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had match points on serve several times in the second set, but I couldn&#8217;t control my nerves at that time,&#8221; she said. &#8220;This tournament seems to keep giving me second chances and I keep using it. So, yes, happy dinner.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"inline inline-photo full\">\n<figure><picture><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0429%2Fr1651204_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=570&amp;format=jpg, https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0429%2Fr1651204_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=1140&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(min-width: 376px)\"><source data-srcset=\"https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0429%2Fr1651204_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=375, https:\/\/a4.espncdn.com\/combiner\/i?img=%2Fphoto%2F2026%2F0429%2Fr1651204_1296x729_16%2D9.jpg&amp;w=750&amp;cquality=40&amp;format=jpg 2x\" media=\"(max-width: 375px)\"\/><\/source><\/picture><\/figure>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Russian-born Potapova said she was energized when her boyfriend, Dutch player Talon Griekspoor, arrived for the match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;In the third set, I lost a little bit mentally. I didn&#8217;t believe in myself at that moment,&#8221; she said. &#8220;But kudos to my boyfriend for showing up on time. He kept telling me, &#8216;You can do it, we&#8217;re all in this together, just keep going.'&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Potapova said Griekspur was &#8220;not afraid&#8221; to tell her anything.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I just played, and mentally he kept me there,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It happened at a very important moment and gave me a lot of energy. Mentally, I think he made this match a success. I did it physically. He did it mentally.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She will next face Marta Kostyuk, who defeated Linda Noskova 7-6 (1), 6-0.<\/p>\n<p>According to the women&#8217;s tour, Potapova became the first lucky loser to reach the semi-finals since the inception of WTA 1000, or Tier I, in 1990. She has won four straight, including against world No. 2 Elena Rybakina in the round of 16.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t expect to win the lottery again because they didn&#8217;t have my name as the lucky loser at first,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Then the days went on and no one got hurt or missed, and then at the last moment, literally 30 minutes before the (first round) game, I got word that I was given the chance to be here again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>She said she had no expectations and was just enjoying &#8220;good days&#8221; in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Maybe that&#8217;s the key, you don&#8217;t always have to pay so much attention and focus on the tournament,&#8221; Potapova said. It might be nice to have some fun and enjoy the journey once in a while.<\/p>\n<p>She said it feels like a &#8220;miracle&#8221; to have made this far.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s pretty rare to get a second chance and almost make it all the way,&#8221; Potapova said. &#8220;But&#8230;I always say, if you got it, you probably deserved it. I&#8217;m happy that I didn&#8217;t waste it, that I transformed it and that I&#8217;m here now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MADRID &#8211; Anastasia Potapova fell to her knees, put her hands over her face and started crying. The &#8220;outburst of emotions in my heart&#8221; came after world No. 56 Potapova defeated Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-3 at the Madrid Open on Wednesday, becoming the first &#8220;lucky loser&#8221; to reach the semi-finals of a WTA [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[140,3465,9180,724,564,32,9181,1849,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-46722","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-advances","9":"tag-anastasia","10":"tag-loser","11":"tag-lucky","12":"tag-madrid","13":"tag-open","14":"tag-potapova","15":"tag-semifinals","16":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46722"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46722\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportsdaily.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}