Unseeded Austrian Anastasia Potapova surprised No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan and won a 7-6 (8), 6-4 battle in the Round of 16 at the Madrid Open on Monday.

Two of the top three seeds were shown the exit door, as Czech 13th seed Linda Noskova defeated No. 3 seed Coco Gauff 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (5). Top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus survived a tough test from No. 14 Naomi Osaka of Japan but advanced in three sets.

Potapova’s victory took one hour and 53 minutes and finished just after midnight local time. In the field as a lucky loser, she is now set to play a WTA 1000 quarterfinal match for just the fourth time.

Rybakina turned a 2-0 deficit into a 5-3 lead in the first set, but Potapova rallied to tie it at 5-5 and 6-6. The pair traded one-point leads in a tightly contested tiebreaker before Potapova won it on her third set point.

Potapova then trailed Rybakina 4-2 in the second set before she ripped off the final four games in a row. She ended the match having saved 7 of 10 break points and having won 75.5% of her first-service points (37 of 49).

Gauff, meanwhile, squandered a 4-1 lead in the third set and let Noskova move in front 6-5 before forcing a tiebreaker. There, Gauff led a 4-2 lead slip away.

Noskova hit eight aces with seven double faults, while Gauff fired 13 aces and committed six double faults. Gauff also saved 7 of 10 break points, but it was not to be.

“I know the match is not over until it’s over,” Noskova told reporters. “I was kind of saying to myself that I’m still close … even though it’s 1-4. I just wanted to find my rhythm and my game all over again.”

Sabalenka found herself a set and a break down when Osaka broke her serve in the third game of the second. Osaka won a marathon sixth game to tie it 3-3, but from there Sabalenka took nine of the last 11 games of the match, prevailing 6-7 (1), 6-3, 6-2.

“Oh my God, that was incredible level,” Sabalenka said after improving to 2-1 all-time against Osaka, the four-time major champ. “She played incredible tennis. I feel like I just got lucky in a couple shots in the third set, that’s why it went that fast.”

Sabalenka became the sixth woman to reach 150 match wins at WTA 1000 tournaments.

Her next opponent is 30th seed Hailey Baptiste, who reached her second WTA 1000 quarterfinal by enduring a second-set marathon to beat No. 11 Belinda Bencic of Switzerland 6-1, 6-7 (14), 6-3. Baptiste double-faulted three times during the second-set tiebreaker, and Bencic was credited with six match points saved in all.

In other matches, No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia needed two hours and 53 minutes to get past Hungary’s Anna Bondar 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (5); Canadian 24th seed Leylah Fernandez beat 31st seed Ann Li 6-3, 6-2; No. 26 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine eliminated Caty McNally 6-2, 6-3; and Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic advanced past Solana Sierra of Argentina 6-4, 6-3.

–Field Level Media

After snapping a four-game losing streak, the Milwaukee Brewers will turn to right-hander Chad Patrick against the visiting Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday in the opener of the three-game series.

Arizona has not officially named a starter, but veteran right-hander Merrill Kelly (1-1, 9.31 ERA) is likely to make his third start since coming off the injured list against Patrick (1-1, 2.35 ERA).

Both Milwaukee and Arizona were idle Monday.

The Brewers avoided a sweep with a 5-0 victory over the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday. Kyle Harrison allowed one hit over six innings with a career-high 12 strikeouts for Milwaukee.

Arizona rallied past San Diego 12-7 in Mexico City on Sunday with six runs in the seventh and four in the eighth. Tim Tawa ignited the seventh-inning rally with his first career grand slam.

Ildemaro Vargas had a homer, triple and double with four RBIs to extend his major league-leading hitting streak to 20 games this season, and 23 dating back to last year. It is the second-longest overall streak since the 25-gamer by Pittsburgh’s Bryan Reynolds from June 1-29, 2024.

Catcher Adrian Del Castillo left in the third inning Sunday with a left ring finger dislocation after a foul tip off his glove.

“We’re going to continue to evaluate him through the course of the next couple of days,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said following Sunday’s game. “What does it mean for his playing time? What does it mean for potential IL? Right now, I don’t know.”

Shortstop Geraldo Perdomo left Saturday’s game with a left ankle sprain and is listed as day-to-day.

The 37-year-old Kelly began the season on the IL with a left intercostal nerve irritation, which caused tightness in his back. After an effective first start, Kelly was rocked his last time out for eight runs in 4 1/3 innings in an 11-5 loss to the White Sox, giving up three consecutive solo homers in the second inning.

Kelly is 5-2 with a 2.95 ERA in 10 careers starts vs. Milwaukee.

Patrick followed an opener in his last appearance and took the loss in a 5-2 defeat at Detroit, allowing four runs on six hits in four innings of relief. Prior to that, he allowed just one run in 14 2/3 innings in his three previous appearances.

“Obviously, there’s some back and forth in the head wanting to think of it as a long reliever role instead of the starting role. It kind of just plays some games a little bit with you,” Patrick said after the loss. “But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. You’ve still got to do it.”

Patrick has only faced the Diamondbacks once, allowing five hits over 4 1/3 scoreless innings, but he did not get the decision in a 5-4 loss last season.

The Brewers have lacked power with Jackson Chourio, Andrew Vaughn and Christian Yelich on the injured list.

The Brewers have not had a home run in seven consecutive games, their most since a franchise-record 13 straight games in 1999. Milwaukee has one home run in its last 11 games and is tied for last in the majors with 19 homers.

Jake Bauers, tied for the team lead with five homers, doubled twice Sunday to extend his hitting streak to five games, hitting .381 over that span.

–Field Level Media

Victor Wembanyama is back in full force as the San Antonio Spurs head home looking to finish off the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday in Game 5 of the Western Conference first-round playoff series.

The Spurs claimed a commanding 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven series Sunday with a 114-97 come-from-behind win in Portland. If the Trail Blazers win Tuesday, they can force Game 6 in Portland on Thursday.

De’Aaron Fox scored 28 points in Sunday’s win and Victor Wembanyama had 27 in his return from a concussion. He sat out the second half of Game 2 and all of Game 3 due to concussion protocol. Wembanyama also had 11 rebounds, seven blocks and four steals in Sunday’s victory.

Stephon Castle scored 16 points for the Spurs. He’s dealing with an injured left hand and was in foul trouble in Game 4, when Devin Vassell added 11 points. San Antonio trailed by 19 points following a ragged second quarter but dominated after halftime, outscoring Portland 73-35.

“We need to find the answers, you know, before having our back against the wall,” Wembanyama said. “But that also shows the strength of our team. In adversity, we stick together, we get closer to each other. We feed off of each other’s energy. There’s no useless drama between us. You know, we thrive when we do the invisible efforts that benefit others. There’s no jealousy. There’s no nobody cares about their stat line, so it’s our greatest strength.”

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson has witnessed a maturation process with his young team that became more evident with the road playoff win. The next step might prove most difficult — closing out the No. 7 Blazers.

“This gives you a lot of takeaways,” he explained. “A lot of feedback on things you got to be better on and improve upon, and try to not put yourself in a position when you got to dig yourself out of a hole. We have to continue to balance that attack mentality, starting off games while still anchoring to our fundamentals and discipline of game plan, execution.”

Deni Avdija had 26 points in Game 4 to rebound from his poor shooting in the previous two games. Avdija was 8-of-31 shooting combined in Games 2 and 3. The Blazers will need him on his game along with Scoot Henderson, who had a season-high 31 points in the Trail Blazers’ Game 2 win in San Antonio but missed all seven of his shot attempts Sunday.

A hot start could do wonders for Portland’s confidence Tuesday following abysmal second-half showings in Portland.

“We knew they were going to come out and be more aggressive,” Avdija said. “We expected it. I just think coming out the half, we didn’t make shots, and they went on a run. Suddenly, you look up at the scoreboard, and it’s a closer game.”

Portland coach Tiago Splitter said his team would go back to work to try to find a solution and extend the series.

“I think the guys fought hard,” Splitter said. ” In the second half, we mentally kind of like broke down, couldn’t get over the fact that we were up, and then they just came back to the game. Didn’t shoot the ball well, turned over the ball.

“We’ve got to hold our composure and be more present. I tried to, you know, slow down a little bit but couldn’t find a solution. It’s all of us, coaches, players we all got to be better. We got to win every game that we have in front of us, and we’re going to fight one by one.”

–Field Level Media