Victoria Azarenka Battles Into Miami Open Semis, Elena Rybakina Beats Maria Sakkari

Three-time Miami Open winner Victoria Azarenka battled for nearly three hours to get past a determined Yulia Putintseva and take her place in the semi-finals with a 7-6 (7/4), 1-6, 6-3 win on Tuesday. Fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina, the highest seeded player left in the tournament, held off a strong challenge from eighth-seed Maria Sakkari of Greece before emerging with a 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-4 win. The 34-year-old Azarenka, who won in Miami in 2009, 2011 and 2016, had to deal not only with the spirited display from the Moscow-born Kazakh player, but also a long disruption to the match due to a technical problem.

The match was stopped for 45 minutes in the fourth game of the first set due to a power outage which impacted the umpire's communications and the hawkeye system.

Azarenka had to save three set points on Putintseva's serve at 5-4 in the first set, then missed out on two set points of her own at 6-5 before the tie-break.

Putintseva dominated the second set but Azarenka found the strength to get ahead in the third but still her opponent refused to relent, fighting off match point before breaking.

But Azarenka held on her next serve to secure passage to the last four and keep alive her hope of a fourth Miami title.

"Yulia played great, she's in such great form and I really had to dig deep. I felt like my legs were kind of giving in a little bit and I lost a little bit of self-belief because she was playing so well and moving me around everywhere," said Azarenka.

"But I'm happy that I was able to regroup, reset and really take my chances, come out and play aggressive and face the challenge," she said.

Azarenka said the win showed that there can be no doubt about her desire to compete at the highest level.

"I'm motivated