World No.1 Iga Swiatek won her first Mutua Madrid Open title, saving three championship points to defeat No.2 and reigning champion Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7). The match, the season’s longest Hologic WTA Tour final, lasted 3 hours and 11 minutes.
The Pole had been a break down early in the third set but held her nerve down the stretch to gain revenge for defeat by Sabalenka in last year’s final.
The first meeting of the top two players in the world this season kept the Spanish crowd enthralled for more than three hours, and featured some extraordinary power, brilliant shot-making and superb defence.
The Madrid title marks the 20th career victory for 22-year-old Swiatek and her third of the season. She is the youngest player to reach 20 titles since Caroline Wozniacki in 2012.
Andrey Rublev overcame an opening set wobble to beat Felix Auger-Aliassime 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 in the final of the Madrid Open on Sunday to win his second Masters 1000 title.
Auger-Aliassime, 23, had benefitted from the retirement of his semi-final opponent Jiri Lehecka early in their match and the withdrawal of world number two Jannik Sinner with a hip injury before their quarter-final.
The Canadian had to work hard to save break points in the third set where Rublev was the better player, but was eventually undone by a double fault on match point.
Rublev – who had suffered with illness during the tournament – produced a remarkable turnaround, not only in the final but had lost four consecutive matches coming into Madrid and bounced back to oust world No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz in the quarter-final.
“No words. If you knew what I have been through the last nine days, you would not imagine that I would be able to win a title. I’m incredibly happy,” said Rublev.
The Spanish tennis players Sara Sorribes and Cristina Bucsa have won the women’s doubles title of the Mutua Madrid Open. No.8 seeds Bucsa and Sorribes Tormo rolled past No.6 seeds Barbora Krejcikova and Laura Siegemund 6-0, 6-2 in the final to triumph at the year’s first clay-court WTA 1000 event.
In this way, they become the first national tennis players to achieve the Madrid trophy in the women’s doubles category that eluded Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez, finalists in the 2014 and 2015 editions.
Sebastian Korda and Jordan Thompson’s first week competing together on the doubles court ended in Mutua Madrid Open glory on Saturday afternoon in Spain.
In the final between two unseeded pairs at the clay court tournament, Thompson and Korda defeated Uruguay’s Ariel Behar and Czechia’s Adam Pavlasek 6-3, 7(9)-6(7) in 77 minutes to win their maiden ATP Masters 1000 tennis title in doubles.
“We practised a tonne, and this was our first tournament together,” said Korda after winning his maiden tour-level doubles title. “It was a pretty good one, and [we will play] next week again in Rome. It was a lot of fun playing with Jordan this week and looking forward to next week.”
Following on from Madrid, the world’s best head to Rome for the Italian Open. This is the final WTA and ATP 1000 event ahead of Roland Garros and the third clay court Masters event of the year.
Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, former two-time champion Elina Svitolina, Naomi Osaka and Angelique Kerber make up a strong women’s draw.
Novak Djokovic, Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Nadal headline the men’s draw that also includes Cam Norrie, Jack Draper and Dan Evans.
Qualifying starts on Monday, May 6 ahead of the main draw on Wednesday, May 8.
The finals will be held on the weekend of May 18.