Saturday at the Caja Mágica saw Iga Swiatek lifted the curtain on an enticing weekend of tennis with a straightforward win over Sorana Cirstea (6-1, 6-1) under the retractable roof of the Manolo Santana Stadium.
The world No. 1 only needed one hour and 18 minutes to take her strike rate in the Mutua Madrid Open to nine wins from eleven outings and book a place among the last sixteen hopefuls for the title.
“I know how to play in these kinds of conditions. So I felt pretty comfortable and the only thing is I had to wake up in the morning really early but I’m happy to have played in a solid way today”, said the three-time French Open champion.
The Madrid clay is familiar hunting ground for a Swiatek who, with 14 winners in the match, showed that she has figured out the secrets to playing Cirstea. She has beaten the Romanian in all four of their encounters on the WTA Tour, this time with exactly the same result as that of their last clash, in Doha this year.
“Every tournament is a different story and it doesn’t matter what happened last year. I played really good matches here and I want to use that experience and try to do my best to go step by step”, explained last year’s MMOPEN runner-up.
The 22-year-old Warsaw-born player will now bid for a place in the quarters on Monday against the Spaniard Sara Sorribes (7-6[0], 6-3 vs Victoria Azarenka), as she vies to win one of the only four WTA 1000s that are yet to find a place in her trophy cabinet.
“In a tennis match anything can happen. Sorribes is a Spaniard and the home-crowd will be behind her. She is really solid as well and a fighter. But I have to be focused on myself and on what I want to do on court”, she said of her possible opponent in the next round.
Swiatek met alpine sky racer star Lindsey Vonn in Madrid. “I also read her biography, and I found huge inspiration from that. She’s a person to talk to if I need advice or I just want to talk to somebody who is cool. Her power even with the way she talks, you know, and her confidence, so for sure this is something that I might learn from her”, she concluded on the American olympic champion.
