Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia played hard but couldn’t resist and was knocked out of the WTA 500 in Adelaide at dawn on Thursday. After more than two and a half hours of the match, the Brazilian was beaten by the Spaniard Paula Badosa, by tight partials of 7/6 (7-5) and 7/5, and said goodbye to the competition.

Still, Bia can skip a spot in the world rankings and reach 14th place. For that to happen, just hope your executioner goes down in the semi-finals of the tournament. Badosa, current champion of the circuit, faces the Russian Daria Kasatkina in the next phase.

Brazilian Luisa Stefani, meanwhile, teamed up with North American Taylor Townsend to secure a place in the WTA Grand Final in the women’s doubles category. They beat the Czechs Miriam Kolodziejova and Marketa Vondrousova, 6/2, 6/3.

It will be Stefani’s fourth decision since last September. The tennis player, absent for months due to knee surgery, was crowned champion in the three finals in which she participated: in Pune, with the Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski, in Guadalajara, with the Australian Storm Sanders, and in Montevideo, alongside the Rio native. Ingrid Martins.

In the final, the duo will face Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Kazakh Elena Rybakina, who in the other semi-final beat Ukrainian Lyudmila Kichenok and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. The game takes place this Friday.

Matos falls in the quarter-finals

Brazilian Rafael Matos, meanwhile, was not so lucky. Alongside Spaniard David Vega, the gaucho lost to Croatian Ivan Dodig and North American Austin Krajicek, and didn’t make it past the WTA quarter-finals in the men’s doubles category.

The setback came with the partials of 6/3 and 6/4, in just over an hour of play. The winning duo will challenge the number 1 seeds, the Dutchman Wesley Koolhof and the Briton Neal Skupski, in the next phase.