The world‘s No. 1 tennis player Iga Swiatek won the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid after a match that lasted more than three hours against No. 2, Aryna Sabalenka, whom she beat 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 ( 9/7) in the final.
Swiatek saved three match points for Sabalenka: the first two at 6 to 5 with her serve, and another in the decisive game, with 7 points to 6.
The 22-year-old Pole managed to win the second time she had after 3 hours and 11 minutes of play, after failing to take advantage of a first match point with 6 points to 5.
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Swiatek took revenge from a year ago, when Sabalenka beat him in the Madrid final 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
The two best world players reached the final, as in 2023, following very different paths.
With the exception of a quarterfinal in three sets of two and a half hours (against Haddad Maia), Swiatek reached the final with relative ease: four matches in two sets, in which he lost only 22 games and barely more than 1h15 maximum over track.
Before meeting again at Roland Garros, Swiatek and Sabalenka should visit Rome next week.
Fun tennis. After the exhausting match and in front of the microphones, the new champion stated: “Who is going to say now that women’s tennis is boring? Congratulations also to Aryna because we made a great effort today, honestly, in the end I didn’t care if she won or lost. I was happy to have overcome the stress I had in the first two sets. Even if I had lost, I have fought.
Men’s final
The Russian Andrey Rublev, No. 8 in the world, will seek his first Madrid Masters 1000 title today from 1:30 p.m. when he faces the Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime, who entered the final after the withdrawal due to injury of his Czech rival Jiri Lehecka.
Rublev beat American Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-3 in the semifinal.