Hailey Baptiste upset World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and did so in dramatic fashion, saving six match points en route to a 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) victory in the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open on Tuesday.

The 30th-seeded Baptiste earned the first top-five victory of her young career by handing Sabalenka only her second loss of the season. The Belarusian saw a 15-match win streak come to a halt.

Baptiste, a 24-year-old from Washington, D.C., advanced to the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event for the first time after reaching the Miami Open quarterfinals last month — where she fell to Sabalenka.

“It just shows me where my game was. I’ve always believed it, and I feel like now I’m starting to put it into action and the world is seeing it as well,” Baptiste told Tennis Channel in a post-match interview.

Five of Baptiste’s six saved match points came during a marathon 10th game in the third set. Up 5-4, Sabalenka raced out to a 40-15 lead and had double match point. But it was Baptiste’s service game, and she fired an ace past Sabalenka before another big serve led to a Sabalenka shot in the net.

Sabalenka soon earned three advantages in a row, only for Baptiste to counter all three.

In the tiebreaker, Sabalenka squeaked ahead 6-5 but Baptiste saved match point No. 6 and won two more points from there to finish off the upset.

“I definitely had a lot of nerves, but I had 28 chances yesterday and I didn’t get it done,” Baptiste said, referring to Monday’s marathon win in which Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic saved six of Baptiste’s match points.

“I was able to get it on the first one, and I told my team, when I get my match point today, I’m going to win the first one that I get.”

Baptiste finished with 12 aces and saved 11 of 17 break points, while Sabalenka saved 8 of 14 break points and won exactly one fewer point than her opponent. Sabalenka had won the Sunshine Double (Indian Wells, Miami) plus her first three matches of the Madrid Open.

Baptiste’s next challenge will be a match against No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. In the only other match on Tuesday’s slate, Andreeva defeated Canadian 24th seed Leylah Fernandez 7-6 (1), 6-3.

On the day before her 19th birthday, Andreeva advanced to the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event for the first time since her victories at Dubai and Indian Wells last year.

“I’m so happy I cannot take the smile away from my face,” Andreeva said. “I’m extremely happy about the way I played and the result. It wouldn’t be a perfect birthday if I would lose today. I really didn’t want that to happen, and I was trying to give everything I had to be in a good mood tomorrow.”

Andreeva saved 12 of 15 break points while benefiting from Fernandez’s five double faults without an ace.

–Field Level Media

The Tampa Bay Lightning have returned home tied 2-2 in their Eastern Conference first-round matchup with the Montreal Canadiens, and according to coach Jon Cooper, it may not be that way if not for the play of Max Crozier.

Game 5 takes place in Tampa on Wednesday night after a two-day break following Sunday’s 3-2 Lightning victory in Montreal in front of a boisterous bunch of Habs fans, both inside the NHL’s largest arena and outside watching on a giant screen broadcast.

If one glaring point is gleaned through four contests between the Atlantic Division foes, it is that this best-of-seven series has been the tightest of the first round’s eight matchups, about as evenly played as is mathematically possible.

In addition to splitting the four matches, each side has produced 11 goals and three of the four meetings have required extra time.

On the power play thus far, Montreal, which finished 10th during the regular season, has connected on 5 of 19 chances (26.3%). The Lightning were middling, ranking 17th this season, but have potted four goals in their 20 times on the man advantage (20%).

When the numbers are that close, a play out of the ordinary that generally does not jump off the scoresheet can make a big difference.

Something like Crozier’s Sunday second-period high hit on Montreal’s star winger Juraj Slafkovsky, who netted a hat trick in Game 1 in Tampa on three power-plays tallies, including the game-winner in overtime.

The defenseman, who only played in 35 games due to surgery, waylaid Slafkovsky at center ice at high speed, sending the 2022 No. 1 overall selection straight to the dressing room to regroup.

The Lightning were outhit 50-28 by the Habs, but Crozier’s lone leveling body blow altered the tone.

“The hit obviously got our bench out of their seats,” Cooper said. “But you still have to take advantage of that. We score in the last minute of the second and in the first (two minutes) of the third, and all of a sudden, the game’s completely changed.

“(Crozier’s hit) helped take the crowd out of it.”

Instead of maintaining or building on its 2-0 lead that could have resulted in a 3-1 series advantage, Montreal watched it all slip away by allowing three unanswered goals to the visitors.

Brandon Hagel hit the net for the game-tying and game-winning markers in the third to send the series back to Tampa all square.

Montreal has relied on its top forward line of Cole Caufield (goal, three assists), Nick Suzuki (four helpers) and Slafkovsky (three tallies) for much of the offense, and second-line forward Alex Newhook said the Habs’ secondary scoring must improve.

Newhook plays with center Oliver Kapanen and right winger Ivan Demidov. Only Demidov has produced a point by assisting on Slafkovsky’s first power-play goal in Game 1’s 4-3 shocker.

“It’s something we talk over and try to find solutions (for) here throughout the series as to how,” said Newhook, who posted 13 goals and 25 points in 42 games after fracturing his ankle in mid-November. ” … Fundamentally, getting back to some basics is important this time of the year.

“I think we found some success when we’re keeping it simple and throwing it behind them. Then being able to go and win a battle.”

Game 6, the series’ first elimination game regardless of Wednesday’s result, is Friday in Montreal.

–Field Level Media

The men’s and women’s NCAA Tournament fields will expand from 68 to 76 teams in 2027.

The plans for expansion are expected to be approved by NCAA committees and formalized as soon as May, multiple reports said Tuesday.

CBS Sports reported that the NCAA plans for 52 teams to slot into the main bracket and the other 24 teams will face off in 12 games on the Tuesday and Wednesday after Selection Sunday, filling out the Round of 64 with the winners. It will no longer be called the “First Four,” with the terminology expected to be “opening round” for the play-ins and “first round” for the Round of 64.

Per ESPN, the NCAA is completing contract negotiations with its media partners. That step must come before votes from the men’s and women’s basketball committees, the men’s and women’s basketball oversight committees, the Division I Cabinet and the Division I Board of Governors.

It would mark the first expansion of the tournament since the field moved from 65 to 68 teams with the addition of the First Four games in 2011. The field had been 64 or 65 teams since 1985.

The Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference were the leading voices behind tournament expansion, Yahoo Sports reported earlier this month. NCAA president Charlie Baker has also voiced his support.

“I said all along that I think there are some very good reasons to expand the tournament,” Baker told ESPN in February. “So, I would like to see it expand.”

–Field Level Media