Photo credit: Mutua Madrid Open Facebook
Clay-court tennis demands discipline and resilience.
Bageled for the first time in six years on dirt, Iga Swiatek showed big bounce-back skills.
Force-fed a bagel in the opener, Swiatek sharpened her shots, quickened her footwork and surged through the final five games in an 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory over Madison Keys to reach her third Madrid semifinal and third semifinal of the season.
“It was one of the weirdest matches I’ve played,” Swiatek said. “Obviously, it’s not easy to lose the first set 6-0. Not good, at least it was fast.”
Continuing her quest for her first title since she won her fifth Grand Slam at Roland Garros last June, Swiatek will face fourth-seeded Coco Gauff for a spot in the final.
Former US Open champion Gauff stormed through nine of the last 10 games sweeping seventh-seeded Mirra Andreeva 7-5, 6-1 for her first Madrid semifinal. Gauff improved to 3-0 llifetime vs. Dubai and Indian Wells champion Andreeva, who celebrated her 18th birthday yesterday.
Swiatek is 11-3 vs. Gauff, but the American has won their last two meetings in straight sets, including a victory in her run to the WTA Finals championship last November.
“It’s going to be a challenge,” said Swiatek, who dished a first-set bagel to Diana Shnaider in yesterday's round of 16. “I’ll prepare and give it my all.”
Today’s opening quarterfinal clash between Australian Open champion Keys and Roland Garros champion Swiatek was truly a tale of three distinctly different sets.
The fifth-ranked Keys, who carried a 5-1 record vs. Top 10 opponents this year into her second Madrid meeting with Swiatek, completely dominated the opening set blasting returns right back at Swiatek.
The world No. 2 responded storming out to a 5-1 second-set lead and showed strong closing skills with that five-game run to improve to 17-2 lifetime in Madrid.
"The tactics was kind of the same," Swiatek said. "I think in the first set I just didn't make many balls in, you know. So, for sure when I just started getting some in I gave also her more chances to make some mistakes.
'Tactically, yeah, when I felt like I can finally start playing, I did, you know, what I wanted to do from the beginning, so I'm happy with that. Yeah, that's it. I think, you know, the tactics didn't change, I just wasn't able to play in, you know, in the first set."
Keys broke to open and won eight of her first 10 points on serve charging out to a 4-0 lead.
At the start, a tentative Swiatek looked unsure of how to plot points and wasn’t always committed to her drives.
Across the net, Keys adhered to a simple and profound game plan—hammer her returns right back through the middle of the court to jam up Swiatek’s forehand wing.
Setting up for a forehand sitter, Swiatek sailed it well long falling into a 5-0 hole and punctuating her problems by waving her arms toward her box in a plaintive “what can I do?” gesture.
When Swiatek’s backhand tripped off the tape and fell wide, Keys completed a shutout set in a mere 24 minutes.
An overwhelming Keys dished Swiatek her first bagel set on clay since former Olympic gold-medal champion Monica Puig bageled the Pole in the opening set of their 2019 Roland Garros third-round meeting. Swiatek rallied for an 0-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory that day in Paris.
The bad news for Swiatek: Keys was 18-0 when winning the first set this season.
The good news for Swiatek: Despite some sloppy play and multiple racquet changes, she reset holding at 15 to start the second set and snap her six-game slide.
Deadlocked at 1-all, Swiatek was dialing in her drives and Keys grew a bit passive.
The reigning champion rolled through 12 of the next 15 points pounding down an ace to hold at 15 for a 4-1 second-set lead.
A Keys double fault followed by a drive that crashed into the top of the tape gave Swiatek another break and a 5-1 lead.
On a Swiatek second serve, Keys ran around her backhand, but sent a forehand deep as Swiatek snatched the second set to force a decider.
Deadlocked after four games of the decider, Swiatek moved forward, snapped a smash and a volley to earn a third break point. On the move, Keys netted a forehand as Swiatek scored the first break of the last set for 3-2.
On a day in which her best level eluded her, Swiatek smartly attacked net and drew an errant forehand pass followed by another forehand error to confirm the break for 4-2.
Moving quicker and striking more cleanly throughout the set, Swiatek coaxed successive errors and when Key’s backhand flew beyond the baseline, the second seed sewed up her fourth game in a row for 5-2.
On her second match point, Swiatek drew a wild forehand error to seal a hard-fought win in one hour, 46 minutes. Both women won exactly 67 points, but Swiatek committed 25 unforced errors—10 fewer than Keys, who grew a bit complacent after that dominant first set.
"I think she played great, and I didn't serve well. So, like, against a player like that when you're not going to serve well it's obvious that it's going to be tough," Swiatek said. "She was serving great, and she, in every service game she got like two, three points by aces or some amazing serves, like 190 or something, you know. So when I didn't get them back I had no chance to win a point.
"Then, when I didn't hold my serve, obviously, yeah, it became complicated. But, you know, that's why it's good that we have second sets to just change something up. And maybe, yeah, I feel like for sure I started serving better and that helped me."
The question is: Can either Andreeva or Gauff emulate the Keys tactic of hammering returns right back into Swiatek’s hip to put the Pole on defense tomorrow.