Canada's Leylah Fernandez advances to women's doubles semis at Madrid Open

Canada's Leylah Fernandez and American partner Taylor Townsend advanced to the women's doubles semifinals at the Madrid Open with a 6-0, 7-6 (3) win over Taiwan's Hsieh Su-Wei and Czechia's Barbora Srtycova on Wednesday.

Fernandez, of Laval, Que., and Townsend racked up three breaks on six chances and won 63.2 per cent of return points in a dominant first set.

The North American pair overcame serving issues in the second set — they had five double-faults and were accurate on just 50 per cent of first serves — to claim the tiebreak and wrap up the match in one hour 17 minutes.

She reached the final in two earlier tournaments this year. Fernandez and Townsend were defeated in the final of the Miami Open last month by American duo Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff, and Fernandez and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands fell to Japan's Miyu Kato and Indonesia's Aldila Sutjiadi in the final of the season-opening ASB Classic in New Zealand.

Fernandez and Townsend will face Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus in Friday's semifinals.

Pegula and Gauff will face Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania and Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk in the other semifinal.

Alcaraz into semis

Carlos Alcaraz made sure he will get to celebrate his 20th birthday on the court at the Madrid Open come Friday.

The defending champion overcame a tough test from Karen Khachanov on Wednesday, rallying late in the second set for a hard-fought 6-4, 7-5 win that set up a semifinal against Croatian Borna Coric on his birthday.

It was Alcaraz's 150th tour-level match, and his 117th victory to leave him with a winning percentage (78 per cent) currently better than the likes of Pete Sampras, Boris Becker and Andre Agassi.

"My dream in tennis right now is to become one of the best tennis players in history," Alcaraz said. "I know that this is a big dream, [it] probably is too big. But in this world, you have to dream big and you have to think big, as well. I want to be part of the the best tennis players in history. And I will work for it."

Alcaraz was down 4-1 and 5-2 in the final set before winning the final five games to secure his fourth straight-set victory in Madrid. The top-seeded Spaniard improved to 27-2 this year, having dropped only one set in his last 19 victories. He will be playing in his third Masters 1000 semifinals of the season.

Alcaraz converted on his first match point after the 10th-seeded Khachanov had taken control of the second set with an early break. The Russian had two break opportunities to go up 5-1 before Alcaraz rallied for the victory. The Spaniard, who finished with 31 winners, had converted on his first break opportunity to go up 4-3 and win the first set.

Alcaraz had cruised past last year's runner-up Alexander Zverev of Germany in the previous round, while Khachanov — a semifinalist at the Australian Open this year and at the U.S. Open last year — had beaten fifth-seeded Andrey Rublev of Russia.

If Alcaraz wins the title again in Madrid, he will regain the No. 1 spot in the world rankings if he plays at least one match in Rome.

Coric, the 17th seed, made it to the semifinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Germany's Daniel Altmaier.

Swiatek cruises past Martic

Women's No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland also made it to the last four in the Spanish capital, cruising to a 6-0, 6-3 win over Croatia's Petra Martic.

Swiatek won the first seven games and needed just over an hour to make it to her first semifinal in Madrid.

"I feel like I'm playing better and better every day," Swiatek said. "This is pretty great, because I didn't know if that was going to be possible at the beginning of the tournament. But I was patient and I was hoping to get that feeling, and today was for sure a good day."

Swiatek will next face 12th-seeded Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, who reached the semifinals of a WTA 1000 event for the first time by upsetting third-seeded Pegula 6-4, 0-6, 6-4.

Pegula was trying to reach her second consecutive final in Madrid. She was runner-up to Tunisian Ons Jabeur at the clay-court tournament last year.

Second-seeded Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces ninth-seeded Maria Sakkari of Greece in the other women's semifinal.

Raducanu to miss next 2 majors

Emma Raducanu will miss the French Open and Wimbledon after announcing that she is having what she called "minor" procedures on both hands and an ankle and expects to be sidelined for "the next few months."

The 2021 U.S. Open champion, a 20-year-old from Britain who was born in Toronto, has struggled with a series of injuries, most recently pulling out of the Madrid Open because of a hand problem.

Raducanu said on her social media accounts that she's dealt with "a recurring injury on a bone of both hands" for the past 10 months. She posted a photo of herself in a hospital bed with her right wrist and hand bandaged.

"I'm disappointed to share that I will be out for the next few months and while I am at it will have another minor procedure that is due on my ankle," the 85th-ranked Raducanu wrote. "It pains me that I will miss the summer events and I tried to downplay the issues so I thank all my fans who continued to support me when you did not know the facts."

Raducanu became one of the stars of tennis in 2021, when she made a surprising run to the fourth round at Wimbledon as a teenager ranked outside the top 300, then, soon after, won the U.S. Open to become the first qualifier to claim a Grand Slam singles title.

She hasn't made it past the second round at a major tournament since.