Victoria Azarenka continued her bid for a fourth Miami Open title with victory over Yulia Putintseva to set up a semi-final encounter with Elena Rybakina.
The Belarusian 27th seed, who won her last title at Miami Gardens in 2016, needed almost three hours to claim a 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 6-3 win against Putintseva.
There was a 45-minute stoppage in the opening set due to a power outage.
Meanwhile, world number four Rybakina beat Greek eighth seed Maria Sakkari 7-5 6-7 (4-7) 6-4.
Rybakina, who is the highest ranked women’s player remaining in the tournament, lost in last year’s final to the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova.
The Kazakh had two match points in the second set on Tuesday but Sakkari fought back and won the tiebreaker to force a decider.
A single break of serve in the third set was enough for Rybakina to wrap up the victory after a gruelling two hours and 48 minutes.
“I have no words because I’m so tired but I’m really happy with the win,” Rybakina, 24, said.
After the power outage to electronic line-calling system caused the delay in Azarenka’s match, the , 34-year-old saved three set points before clinching the first-set tiebreak against Putintseva.
The unseeded Kazakh dominated the second set, but dropped serve twice in the third to allow Azarenka, who defeated Britain’s Katie Boulter in the fourth round, to reach a first semi-final in Miami since 2018.
On the other side of the draw, American fifth seed Jessica Pegula will face Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova for a place in the last four, while Caroline Garcia of France takes on American Danielle Collins.
