The quarterfinals of the first clay-court WTA 1000 event of 2024 are set at the Mutua Madrid Open. Vote for your favorite rally of the Round of 16 below.
When Yulia Putintseva skipped around her backhand, one could have reasonably assumed she was shaping up for an inside-in forehand drive down the line. But the Kazakhstani's creativity is always one step ahead. From the far ad corner, she came up with an inside-out forehand drop shot -- rarely seen due to its technical difficulty and the need, from that position, for it to be a clean winner. Which, of course, it was.
More drop shot creativity from another queen of the shot, Ons Jabeur -- this time carving beautifully under her forehand for a clean return winner.
Coco Gauff showed off her wheels against Madison Keys, racing across the court to retrieve a full-blast drive volley and turning it into a forehand pass down the line.
How hard is Yulia Putintseva to put away? Daria Kasatkina needed all her patience, accuracy and control to get past her, placing a backhand perfectly in the corner of the court.
The defensive lob from Jelena Ostapenko was superb, landing right on Ons Jabeur's baseline. No matter: the Tunisian simply pulled off an overhead winner, loading it with so much spin that it curved away from Ostapenko as she tried desperately to reach it.
Danielle Collins shone on defense here -- not just in simply retrieving Aryna Sabalenka's bullets, but as commentator Jill Craybas noted, getting her penultimate forehand so short and low that it set her up to loft a pinpoint lob over Sabalenka's head.
Yulia Putintseva used a similar shot to set up the winner in this point, this time from an aggressive position. She used a chopped forehand, fizzing with spin, to drag Kasatkina forward, then picked her off with a sumptuous pass.
