Anastasia Potapova turned a last-minute chance into one of the biggest wins of her career Monday in Madrid, beating World No. 2 Elena Rybakina 7-6, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals as a lucky loser. The victory sent Potapova into her 32nd singles quarterfinal and gave her a fourth career win over a top 5 opponent.
Potapova, who arrived in the draw with only a 35-minute notice opportunity, said she went on court with nothing to lose and wanted to see how close her level was to one of the best players in the game. The result answered that question emphatically. She has now reached her fourth WTA 1000 quarterfinal, and Wednesday’s match against Karolina Pliskova will decide whether she can take the next step.
A win over Pliskova would send Potapova into her first career WTA 1000 semifinal and make her the first lucky loser to reach that round at a Tier 1/WTA 1000 event since the format was introduced in 1990. That is the measure of what is at stake now: not just another upset, but a piece of tournament history. Potapova had lost her previous three quarterfinals, including at Indian Wells in 2024, before putting together this run in Madrid.
The turnaround has been building for weeks. Potapova reached the final in Linz during the clay-court season, her best performance since the quarterfinals in Cluj-Napoca and the third round at the Australian Open. In Madrid, though, she has found a different level, backing up the upset that had already made her a dangerous name in the draw and underlining why she was capable of outlasting Rybakina in a tight first-set tiebreak.
Pliskova brings a familiar problem. She owns the only head-to-head victory over Potapova, a three-set win in the 2024 Doha second round, and she is playing only her second clay-court tournament since returning from injury. Even so, the Czech player entered the event with a protected ranking and is now the lowest ranked quarterfinalist in Madrid history at World No. 197. Potapova has already shown she can ignore the label next to her name. The harder test is whether she can do it again when the semifinal is finally within reach.