World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka continued her Mutua Madrid Open mastery with a 6-3, 7-5 semifinal victory over No. 17 seed Elina Svitolina at the Caja Magica on Thursday night.
Sabalenka needed 1 hour and 32 minutes to hold off Svitolina, ending the Ukrainian’s undefeated clay-court run this year. Coming into Thursday’s match, Svitolina had gone 9-0 on clay at WTA events in 2025 (18-0 in sets), but Sabalenka put a stop to that streak.
Madrid: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Marquee final lined up: Saturday’s final at this year’s first WTA 1000 clay-court event will pit Sabalenka against No. 4 seed Coco Gauff. Gauff dismissed defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-1, 6-1 in just 64 minutes earlier on Thursday.
Gauff has a narrow 5-4 lead over Sabalenka in their head-to-head. Gauff won their only prior clay-court meeting at 2021 Rome, and the American also won their most recent meeting, at the 2024 WTA Finals Riyadh.
Racking up the wins: Sabalenka has been the dominant force at the Mutua Madrid Open this decade. She is now 22-4 lifetime at the tournament, winning the title in 2021 and 2023, and reaching another final last year.
Additionally, Sabalenka is now firmly ensconced as the tour leader in match-wins this year. By beating Svitolina, Sabalenka became the first player to obtain 30 main-draw wins at WTA events in 2025.
Match moments: In the nightcap match on Court Manolo Santana, Sabalenka saw an early 4-1 lead dwindle, as Svitolina cracked a strong backhand return crosscourt to pull back on serve at 4-3.
However, the Ukrainian had to stare down a trio of break points in the following game, and she double faulted on the third to quickly cede the advantage back to Sabalenka.
Serving for the set at 5-3, Sabalenka hit two of her best serves and a backhand winner to erase three break points as well. Sabalenka fired her fourth ace of the day to reach set point, then slammed another unreturned serve to seal the one-set lead.
By the time Sabalenka reached 5-3 in the second set, victory for the World No. 1 seemed to be an inevitability. Despite falling behind in a handful of her service games, Sabalenka had routinely gotten her way out of those jams.
But that was not the case at 5-4, when she stumbled while serving for the match, and Svitolina got back to level footing. Svitolina’s joy was short-lived, though, as Sabalenka crunched a backhand to break again for 6-5.
Serving for the match again, Sabalenka would not make the same mistake twice. The top seed raced to 40-0, and she converted her second match point with one last error-forcing backhand.
Once more this fortnight, Sabalenka was clutch when down break point, saving five of seven against Svitolina. Sabalenka has saved 39 break points at this event, the most a player has managed at a single WTA event this season.
More to come…
