Gauff challenges Sabalenka’s explosiveness in Madrid | Tennis | Sports

There is no other whipped land tournament in which the world number one, Aryna Sabalenka, feels as comfortable as in the Masters in Madrid. In the Central Manolo Santana, the lashes of the tennis player who hits the ball are shot by the 657 meters of altitude that the city has above sea level. The Belarusian, who has raised her three Grand Slams on a hard track – two Australia Open (2023 and 2024) and a US Open (2024) -, has only triumphed over the clay in the Spanish capital (2021 and 2023). His predilection for the sand of the Magic Fund is such that this Saturday he ties with the Romanian Simona Halep as the player who has made the most finals (four) in this WTA 1000. And if he raises today (18.30, teledeport) the title that last year escaped before Iga Swiatk (2nd) after walked three match balls, will match his 26 years – 27 next Monday – the three crowns of Petra Kvitova, the woman who triumphed most times in Madrid. Opposite will be this time Coco Gauff (4th), the 21-year-old American who has been in the circuit from 15 and who swept the champion of the previous season with an imposing double 6-1.

The final, in short, is presented as a kind of battle between the dominator of Madrid and an applicant who has never triumphed in a great tournament on whipped land. Gauph stepped on the Roland Garros final in 2022, where Swiatek ran into two sets in just over an hour, but had never come to fight for the title neither in the Magic Box nor in Rome, the other WTA 1000 of the circuit that is disputed on clay. The American, with an exceptional physique, has become the second youngest tennis player to play the final in the history of the tournament, just behind Caroline Wozniacki, who succeeded in 2009 with 18 years. “It’s great. It is always funny to see the statistics of ‘the youngest’, because I thought I would disappear from them now that I am 21 years old, but I will endure while I can. I am happy to be in the final,” said the American on Thursday, that even this edition had never exceeded the fourth round in the Spanish capital.

With his role in Madrid, Coco will exceed next week at the ranking to the American Jessica Pegula (3rd). If the trophy wins, he will even snatch Swiatek, a tennis player who is in an internal fight to recover his best version, the second position of the world classification. “To be honest, it is not important for me. At this time, the only number that would mean a lot for me is one. Any other number is just a number, it is not something that you think,” said the American, who already has a US open in his record (2023).

That has been the only final in which she and Sabalenka have measured, who won the first set but yielded the second and third to the Atlanta player. Previous clashes also favor Gauff (5-4), which won the only duel on beaten land between them until this Saturday, the round of 16 of the Italic Forum of Rome.

Beyond the data, Gauff has been very consistent during the tournament, fantastic with its two -handed and very firm reverse from the bottom line. After an irregular season – the quarterfinals of the Australian Open were their best result of 2025 – his tennis has finally taken flight in the Magic Box, where in addition to Swiatek he got out of rooms to the talented Mirra Andreeva, one of the sensations of the course. Both she and Sabalenka have only given up a set on her climbing to the decisive game, in which two different styles will be measured: the solidity of the American and the explosiveness of the tennis player who dominates the circuit and enjoys in Madrid ascending the ball.