Iga Swiatek kept her Madrid Open title defence alive, as she avenged her Australian Open defeat to Madison Keys with a 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 win against the American in the quarterfinals on yesterday.
Searching for her first title of the season, the second-seeded Swiatek recovered from a poor opening set to improve her clean record on clay against Keys to 4-0 and reach a third consecutive Madrid semifinal.
Keys knocked out the Pole on her way to a maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne three months ago and seemed to have cracked the Swiatek code when she handed her a bagel in the first set on Wednesday.
But Swiatek, who was contesting a 17th consecutive quarterfinal on clay, cut down on her errors and struck back to book a last-four clash with Coco Gauff or Mirra Andreeva.
“It was one of the weirdest matches I played,” said Swiatek on court.
“Madi was playing perfectly at the beginning. I just tried to play a bit shorter, put the ball in. I just stayed in there.”
Swiatek is famous for dishing out 6-0 sets and it was unusual for the five-time Grand Slam champion to be on the receiving end of one.
“It didn’t feel good. At least it’s fast, you know, but that’s the only positive thing,” she said.
Swiatek had a frustrating start to the match, going down a triple-break 0-5 on a loose forehand that could have been an easy winner into the open court.
The second seed trailed by a set in under 30 minutes and went off court for a toilet break to reset.
