Unstoppable Swiatek reaches semi-finals in Madrid

Iga Swiatek is two steps from expanding her ever growing clay-court empire to Madrid. The top seed rifled past Croatia’s Petra Martic on Wednesday at the Caja Majica to reach the last four of the Madrid Open for the first time, 6-0, 6-3.

It was a dominant display from the world No 1, replete with a first-set bagel (her seventh of the season and 29th since the start of 2022), and it stretches her current winning streak to eight matches.

Swiatek, seeking her first Madrid title this week, will face Russian Veronika Kudermetova, the No 12 seed, next.

Adjusting to Madrid conditions day by day

The 21-year-old improved to 8-0 on the red clay this spring, after notching the title in Stuttgart and reeling off four victories so far at Madrid.

She was initially worried about adapting to the fast-playing conditions in play at Madrid, but has gained a lot of comfort over the last few rounds.

“As I said at the beginning every hour is important,” she said. “I already played a lot of hours here so I feel like I’m playing better and better every day, and this is pretty great because I didn’t know if that’s going to be possible at the beginning of the tournament.

“I was patient and I was hoping to get that feeling and today was for sure a good day.”

Dominant against Kudermetova, but not taking her lightly

Swiatek owns a 3-0 lifetime edge against Kudermetova, who defeated Jessica Pegula in three sets on Wednesday, and has dropped just eight games across their three clashes (and just two in their last two).

The Pole will be confident – but not over confident.

“For me, it doesn’t really matter what our head to head is,” she said. “I’m just gonna focus on myself and what I want to do on court tactically. It’s never easy to play a semifinal; in semifinals we have players who played already a great tournament, so I will just be ready and I’ll recover well now. 

“Tactically I’m gonna be ready because we played a couple of times, so I know her game well.”

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The 21-year-old Pole beat Austrian lucky loser Julia Grabher (6-3, 6-2), American Bernarda Pera, the No 28 seed (6-3, 6-2) and Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova, the No 16 seed (6-4, 6-7 (3), 6-3) ahead of her victory.

Earlier in the tournament, Martic, ranked No 33, won against German qualifier Laura Siegemund (7-6 (6), 6-3), Russian Anna Kalinskaya (6-3, 4-6, 6-3) and Czech Barbora Krejcikova, the No 11 seed (6-3, 7-6 (1)).

Madrid WTA 1000, other quarter-finals results (Caja Magica, clay, USD 7.652.174, most recent results first):

• Veronika Kudermetova beat Jessica Pegula (3): 6-4, 0-6, 6-4
• Maria Sakkari (9) beat Irina-Camelia Begu (31): 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-2
• Aryna Sabalenka (2) beat Mayar Sherif: 2-6, 6-2, 6-1

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