Iga Swiatek battled by “one of the weirdest matches” of her profession, shaking off a disastrous begin to defeat Madison Keys 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 and hold her Madrid Open title protection alive Wednesday.
After being steamrolled within the opening set, the world No. 2 discovered her rhythm and outlasted the fifth-ranked Keys in a gritty comeback on heart courtroom.
Swiatek will face Coco Gauff within the semifinals after the 21-year-old American ousted teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva in straight units, organising the youngest WTA 1000 semifinal conflict since 2009.
“It was one of the weirdest matches I played,” Swiatek mentioned. “Maddie was playing just perfectly at the beginning, and I wasn’t really proactive with anything. I let Maddie make more mistakes by just putting the ball back, and the momentum changed.”
On dropping the opening set 6-0, Swiatek added: “At least it was fast. That’s the only positive thing.”
It was their first assembly for the reason that Australian Open semifinals, the place Swiatek squandered a match level in a loss to Keys.
Swiatek is bidding to succeed in her third consecutive Madrid ultimate. She defeated Aryna Sabalenka final 12 months after dropping to her in 2023.
Sabalenka, the No. 1 participant on the earth, was scheduled to face Twenty fourth-seeded Marta Kostyuk in her quarterfinal later Wednesday.
Swiatek hasn’t superior previous the semifinals at any match since final 12 months’s French Open.
Gauff, ranked No. 4, beat the seventh-ranked Andreeva 7-5, 6-1. Andreeva turned 18 on Tuesday.
Since the introduction of the WTA 1000 tier, solely the 2009 Indian Wells quarterfinal between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Agnieszka Radwanska had a youthful mixed age, in keeping with the WTA.
Gauff recovered after trailing 5-4 within the first set and going through two set factors.
“Off the ground, I think I was dictating most of the rallies, so happy with that,” Gauff mentioned. “Overall, happy with everything.”
Both Gauff and Andreeva managed to complete their earlier matches simply earlier than a large blackout halted play throughout Spain and Portugal on Monday. More than 20 matches had been postponed on the Caja Mágica tennis advanced.
In the lads’s draw, Matteo Arnaldi adopted up his win over Novak Djokovic by defeating Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-5 to succeed in the quarterfinals of an ATP 1000 match for the second time.
Arnaldi has now recorded three straight wins over top-20 opponents for the primary time in his profession.
The Italian will subsequent face Jack Draper, who superior by beating Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-2 in simply 68 minutes. Draper, ranked No. 6, clinched his first ATP 1000 title earlier this 12 months in Indian Wells.
Source: www.dailysabah.com