{"id":95287,"date":"2024-05-03T17:52:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T15:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=95287"},"modified":"2024-05-03T18:22:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:22:42","slug":"sabalenka-v-swiatek-10-0-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/sabalenka-v-swiatek-10-0-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka v Swiatek 10.0: Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before the start of this year\u2019s Mutua Madrid Open, Aryna Sabalenka said she felt her level had dipped as of late, making way for Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina to form a \u2018Big Two\u2019, rather than it being a \u2018Big Three\u2019 that included her. <\/span><\/p>\n

Fast-forward two weeks and Sabalenka has firmly reestablished the \u2018Big Three\u2019 order and will face Swiatek in the final at the Caja Magica on Saturday, following a hard-earned three-set victory over Rybakina in the last-four stage. <\/span><\/p>\n

Looking to become just the second three-time WTA champion in Madrid, behind Petra Kvitova, Sabalenka advanced to her third final in four years at the Spanish capital and she did it the hard way, battling through three sets in four of her five matches this fortnight. <\/span><\/p>\n

Her reward is a rematch of last year\u2019s final against world No. 1 Swiatek, a player she will be facing for a 10th<\/sup> time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s going to be great final. We had so many great matches with Iga. Always tough battles,\u201d said the second-seeded Sabalenka.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m super excited for this final. I’m going to do everything to get this win.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Swiatek has won her last seven consecutive finals, with her last defeat coming against Sabalenka in Madrid 12 months ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Polish top seed leads their head-to-head 6-3 and is searching for her ninth WTA 1000 title, from 11 finals reached.<\/span><\/p>\n

Swiatek is bidding for a third WTA 1000 trophy this season and says she is feeling \u201cpretty confident\u201d heading into her showdown with Sabalenka.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that I can play consistently the semi-finals, finals, and sometimes win. It’s a great place to be, honestly. I’m happy that hard work pays off. So, yeah, really confident,\u201d added the 22-year-old, who would become the youngest player to secure 20 WTA titles since Caroline Wozniacki in 2012 with a win on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

Entering their 10th<\/sup> showdown, ne<\/span>ither Sabalenka nor Swiatek has faced another opponent on more occasions (Swiatek also faced Coco Gauff 10 times and Sabalenka also faced Maria Sakkari 10 times). And even though they are familiar foes, Sabalenka is still planning to do her homework ahead of Saturday\u2019s clash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we are all improving and we are all changing throughout the year, so I’m going to watch her matches and see if I have to adjust my strategy,\u201d said the reigning Australian Open champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the main strategy for me is just to focus on myself and to stay aggressive and just trust my shots, and that’s it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka says her performance against Swiatek in last year\u2019s Madrid final was \u201cthe best match I ever played, especially on clay court\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the level was just super high,\u201d she added. \u201cIt was clean, it was intense, powerful game. Yeah, like, I think that was the best final I ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sabalenka had set a goal early last year, after she picked up her first Grand Slam title in Australia, to usurp Swiatek at the top of the rankings.<\/p>\n

She managed to do so in September 2023, and spent eight weeks at the world No.1 before Swiatek reclaimed the summit.<\/p>\n

In the past, Sabalenka spoke about heading into training blocks thinking about Swiatek and her dominance, and formulating ways to catch up to her.<\/p>\n

Asked if that were still the case, she said: \u201cIt’s not that strong, but when I’m working out, working out really hard and going through tough moments on the practice court or in the fitness, always thinking I have to keep working, keep improving, keep getting better, make sure that I am actually getting better and that I’m going to get closer to this No.1 position, and I’m going to put a little more pressure on top players.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that’s always there, it’s good. I like it. That’s why I like it when you call us three, the \u2018Big Three\u2019, because I feel like we are motivating each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

So now that she\u2019s powered her way into the finals, does Sabalenka feel that we\u2019re back to a \u2018Big Three\u2019, instead of a \u2018Big Two\u2019?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see how this season will go? It’s just one tournament. They have been playing really great on each tournament and didn’t drop the level much,\u201d said a cautious Sabalenka.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been off for, I don’t know how many tournaments, I don’t even want to think about that, so we’ll see how the season goes, and hopefully we’ll get back to these \u2018Big Three\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The verdict is still out on that one, for now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before the start of this year\u2019s Mutua Madrid Open, Aryna Sabalenka said she felt her level had dipped as of late, making way for Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina to form a \u2018Big Two\u2019, rather than it being a \u2018Big Three\u2019 that included her. Fast-forward two weeks and Sabalenka has firmly reestablished the \u2018Big Three\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":95295,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[824,838,999],"tags":[899,1107,902,831,832],"class_list":["post-95287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-noticias-mutua-en","category-noticias-tenis-masculino-en","category-tennis-en","tag-aryna-sabalenka-en-2","tag-final-en-2","tag-iga-swiatek-en","tag-mutua-madrid-open-en-2","tag-wta-en-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95297,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95287\/revisions\/95297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}