On an evening that pitted the queen of clay against the queen of comebacks, Iga Swiatek finally captured the only significant title to elude her on her beloved red dirt, saving three match points against Aryna Sabalenka to win the Madrid Open for the first time.
The finest match of this and many other seasons ended, after three hours and 11 minutes, with Swiatek lying flat on her back, her shirt caked with clay and her eyes stained with tears, the winner of what she would later describe as “the most crazy and intense” final of her career.
In a wild rollercoaster of a contest, the Polish world No 1 fought off two championship points to force a final-set tiebreak, then survived another before finally breaking the stubborn resistance of Sabalenka, whose title defence has been a masterclass in the art of resilience. It was the fifth time in six matches the Belarusian had gone the distance at the Caja Mágica this year but, for once, she was unable to climb off the canvas as she did against the likes of Danielle Collins and Elena Rybakina.
Instead, it was Swiatek who pulled off a Houdini act, fighting back from 3-1 down in the decider to claim a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7) victory and avenge her loss to Sabalenka in last year’s final.
“This was one of craziest finals I played in my life,” said Swiatek after the 20th title win of her career. “I never won such a tight and intense match at the end of a tournament, so it makes me super proud that I just could stick to what I wanted to do till the end and I didn’t lose my focus.”
With her third WTA 1000 crown of the year, following her wins in Qatar and Indian Wells, Swiatek completes a full house of major clay-court titles, adding Madrid to a haul that includes two victories in both Stuttgart and Rome, and a further three at Roland Garros. Rarely has the 22-year-old been pushed harder on her favourite surface, but any questions raised by her defeat to Rybakina a fortnight ago in Stuttgart were answered with a performance rich in quality, courage and endeavour.
It was impossible not to feel for Sabalenka, who put in the shift of her life in the Spanish capital. She toiled for 12 hours merely to reach the final, the longest she has ever spent on court at a tour-level event, dropping a tournament-record 60 games along the way. Once there, she gave everything. She rebounded from the loss of the first set to break at the start of the second. She shrugged off the disappointment of seeing that advantage cancelled out, finding a pair of blazing winners to level the match with Swiatek serving to stay in the set at 4-5. She refused to let her head go down when, having opened up a 3-1 lead in the decider, the Pole once again hit straight back.
Even when Swiatek clubbed an audacious forehand winner to survive the second of two match points at 5-6 in the decider, Sabalenka somehow found the strength of mind to rebound, saving a match point with an ace before fashioning a third of her own. None of it was enough. But after a tough few months personally and professionally, the Australian Open champion can depart Madrid with her head held high.
“It’s a tough one to accept, but at the same time it’s not like you lost the match easily and you didn’t do your best,” said Sabalenka. “I think I gave it all today and I just can be proud of myself.
“Even though it was [a] really close, tight match and it went to Iga’s side, I’m happy with the level I played, with the effort I put into this match and into this week. It’s a lot of good things to take out of this tournament. I’m leaving Madrid with positive thoughts.”
The same goes for Swiatek, who will face whatever challenges lie ahead in Rome and Paris confident in the knowledge that, if she can tame an inspired Sabalenka in the faster conditions of Madrid, where the altitude favours big hitters, she can prosper against any exponent of the power game on clay. Indeed, for the most part, the Pole was able to fight fire with fire in the baseline exchanges. When Sabalenka was at her most destructive, however, Swiatek was able to fall back on her supreme athleticism and defensive skills to salvage points she had no business winning. It was a consummate display of clay-court tennis.
Sabalenka had previously suggested her three-set victory over Swiatek in last year’s final was the finest performance of her career. Twelve months on, it spoke volumes for Swiatek’s excellence that the defeated Belarusian felt she offered an even better account of herself, only to lose. Swiatek, who struggled to play with the same freedom that carried her to the final in such dominant fashion that she lost only one set, believes her momentous victory has furnished her with lessons that, if heeded, will serve her for the rest of her career.
“Overall, I think this match is going to give me a lot of wisdom and hope that, even if I’m not feeling the best, I can still win matches against top players,” said Swiatek. “If I work through that, and if I really remember what happened in my head today, I think it can give me a lot for my whole career, not only for the next tournaments.”