Swiatek, the number one who is looking for the only great victory she lacks on clay in Madrid

There was a moment this Tuesday when Iga Swiatek, the world number one, seemed to be stung at the Manolo Santana stadium after losing the first round of the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open against Beatriz Haddad Maia (14th). With dozens of Brazilians in the stands cheering on her compatriot, the Pole got stuck with unforced errors and lost the set 4-6 when just a few moments before she dominated 4-1. The number one, excited, reacted instantly and began her tennis ritual: she took out the concrete wall from the back of the court, dominated with her backhand and forehand and with an overwhelming rhythm of legs she crushed her rival (4- 6, 6-0, 6-2, 2h 30m). “Come on, force your legs!”, “Come on, darling!”, the Brazilians shouted at Haddad Maia, who was left without a response as soon as Swiatek, a titanium competitor, raised her level to reach the semifinals of the tournament, the only major event played on clay in which she has not triumphed. the Pole, who at 22 years old has won three Roland Garros on clay and two crowns in the Foro Italico in Rome.

Swiatek has dominated the women’s circuit with an iron fist since Australian Ashleigh Barty announced in March 2022 that she was retiring at just 25 years old because tennis did not satisfy her, but she has never conquered Madrid, where the conditions are more similar to those of a hard court. The altitude of the city—657 meters above sea level—increases the speed of the ball. “[Competir en Madrid] Of course it is different. You have to play differently and adjust [los golpes] from the beginning, but after a couple of games you can feel freer, more natural, because you notice that you are improving. Of course, it is more complicated,” Swiatek responded at a press conference to a question from this newspaper after the victory against Haddad Maia.

This year is the Polish woman’s third trip on the Mutua. In the first, in 2021, she fell in the third round, but last year she achieved in the second round what is her best result so far: she starred in one of the best women’s finals in the history of the tournament against the world number two, Aryna Sabalenka. The Belarusian, an overwhelming tennis player, pure power, ended up taking the third set and the title based on spanking, very strong blows that in Madrid do even more damage due to the speed they acquire. It is the only match on clay that Sabalenka – who took the number one spot from September to November last year – has managed to win against Swiatek. In the matches in Rome (2022) and Stuttgart (2022 and 2023) she fell in all of them, and could not even scratch a set.

In this edition in Madrid, the number one will face on Thursday in the semifinals – her fifteenth in a WTA 1000, a record for a tennis player under 23 years old – with the American Madison Keys (20th), who tonight defeated the Tunisian Ons Jabeur (9th) after turning the match around (0-6, 7-5, 6-1, 1h 35m). On the way to the penultimate step she has shown one of the distinctive signs of her career: the 6-0. Sara Sorribes, the best Spanish racket of the moment, was punished yesterday in the round of 16 with a 6-1, 6-0. The Pole made it a partial score of 12 games to 0 after the Castellón player took the first over the rest. At noon this Tuesday she also gave him a donut to Haddad Maia in the second heat. In fact, it was the 78th time that the tennis player from Warsaw defeated a rival in this way in a set. In May 2021, in her first WTA 1000 crown, she left a historic record against the Czech Karolina Pliskova to lift Rome: a double 6-0 in just 46 minutes, a beating in a tournament of that category or higher that has not been since the German Steffi Graf – winner of 22 majors— she blushed the Belarusian Natasja Zvereva in 1988 at Roland Garros with an identical score.

Iga Swiatek, a fan of ACDC and Pink Floyd and a reading enthusiast, left her coach for the previous four years, Piotr Sierzputowski, in December 2021 and joined forces with Tomasz Witkorowski. She then made a qualitative leap on the hard court, where she has won a US Open (2022), six WTA 1000 titles – in 2022 she became the first player in history to win the first three WTA 1000 titles of the year in a row – and the WTA Finals of the 2023. In addition, last year he won Roland Garros for the third time just after turning 22 years old. No one had won four Grand Slams at that age since the formidable Serena Williams (at 20).

Paris was precisely where she exploded: in 2020 she broke all the odds and without giving up a set she lifted Roland Garros to become, at the age of 19, the first Pole to lift a major. She did it at the same age that her idol, Rafael Nadal, won the first of his 14 Musketeers Cups. In 2021, Swiatek was in the stands in Paris the day the Spaniard fell in the semifinals against Djokovic in four sets. The Pole did not stop making gestures of suffering during the Serbian’s comeback, and after the match she said that she had had a terrible time and had ended up crying because of the defeat. This Tuesday, at a press conference, he was asked if he ever thought about asking a rival for something at the end of the match, as the Argentine Pablo Cachín did on Monday, who asked Nadal on the court if he would give him the shirt after losing. against him: “The truth is no, but if I played against Rafa I would ask him, of course.”

In a women’s circuit in which instability has marked recent times, the Pole has been number one for almost two years and has tennis, physique – her legs are very strong and she moves spectacularly along the back of the court, from where it is very difficult to keep up with him—and head to, perhaps, mark an era on the circuit. She knows how to cope with pressure since she won Roland Garros in 2020. “I always wanted to inspire others. It’s easier to find motivation when you feel like the kids are watching you. It is also a burden on my shoulders, and I am still learning how to deal with this without it affecting my mentality and attitude,” said Swiatek in Madrid, where these days she is looking for the only great victory she is missing on clay.

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