Iga Swiatek had a second chance at the Madrid Masters 1000 and the Polish player took advantage of it: in a repeat of last year’s final, she changed the meaning of the result and she beat Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6 and 7-6 (7), in a stellar match between the two best players on the circuit.
It was the longest match of his two weeks in the Caja Mágica: three hours and eleven minutes, with maximum physical demand. They came strong to the end and decided the outcome in the third set tiebreaker. Until then, nothing that seemed definitive was.
Swiatek thus won the twentieth title of his career, at 22 years old, and the third this year, after those in Doha and Indian Wells. The new crown comes as he celebrates his 101st week at the top of the world rankings.
The player from Warsaw can now cross out her only major pending task in the clay tournaments, since only Madrid was missing from a list that already included two trophies in Rome, two in Stuttgart and three at Roland Garros.
In the tenth meeting between the two, Swiatek and Sabalenka were still able to surprise each other. The Pole resisted the barrage of power from her rival and she was able to talk to her in the exchanges and guess where she was going to draw the line.
Swiatek won, but the opposite could have happened. The differences between the two were minimal. Two great players who fought to the limit and deserved to share the glory. Swiatek cried with joy as on great occasions and said that for her victory she was inspired by Rafael Nadal’s unforgettable conquest at the 2022 Australian Open in which the Spaniard overcame a two-set deficit to celebrate 2-6, 6 -7(5), 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5.
