Madrid Open : Swiatek unlocks Keys

Madrid, May 2

Top seed Iga Swiatek made light work of Madison Keys to book a place in back-to-back finals of the Madrid Open as she beat the American 6-1 6-3 after 70 minutes in the semifinals today.

Heading into the contest having won two of their last three meetings, the 22-year-old Pole dominated from the start and wrapped up the opener in just over half an hour against the 18th seed.

The second set was no different with Keys causing little trouble to Swiatek, who lost last year’s final to world No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka, as the world No. 1 broke early and raced into a 5-3 lead before breaking again to secure the win. “I feel really good,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t really thinking about what happened last year. But repeating this result is a great thing. I’ll have a chance to play a nice match in two days. So it’s really exciting.”

On Wednesday, Carlos Alcaraz’s bid to win a third straight Madrid title ended with a three-set loss to Andrey Rublev in the quarterfinals.

The second-seeded Spaniard got off to a good start but then was outplayed by the seventh-seeded Rublev, losing 4-6 6-3 6-2.

“Playing someone like Rublev that I couldn’t push him to the limit in every point is tough,” he said.

Alcaraz plans to play in Rome to continue his preparation for the French Open later this month. “I’m going to go to Rome. I’m going to work to be close to 100% or in a good way to play Rome, but I’m going to decide these days. But I think I’ll be OK,” he said. Top-seeded Jannik Sinner withdrew because of a hip injury, saying he didn’t want to risk making it worse. Sinner was scheduled to face Felix Auger-Aliassime. — Agencies

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