Madison Keys aims to use Australian Open experience to upset Iga Swiatek in Madrid quarterfinals
Iga Swiatek holds a 4-2 head-to-head record over Madison Keys and will be meeting the American on clay for the third time.
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Madison Keys and Iga Swiatek (via X/The Tennis Letter)
The last time Madison Keys beat Iga Swiatek, she became a Grand Slam champion for the first time in her career. They faced in this year’s Australian Open semifinal where Keys saved a match point to oust the Pole before denying Aryna Sabalenka a three-peat at the Melbourne Slam.
Keys registered her second victory over Swiatek in their sixth match. Now, the two top players are once again pitted against each other; this time, in the Madrid Open quarterfinal.
The upcoming match will be their third encounter on clay, following the Madrid Open semifinals and the Rome Open quarterfinals in 2024. In both of these matches, Swiatek won, before reaching the finals and beating Sabalenka on both occasions to win the titles.
Swiatek will definitely be the favorite to win in this year’s Madrid Open quarterfinal. But the fact that the surface is clay and Swiatek is the best player on the red dirt at present, didn’t waver the American’s confidence. She is only hoping to recall her Australian Open win to once again stun the five-time Grand Slam champion.
There’s a few things I think I did really well in Australia, especially after dropping that first set and being able to bounce back so quickly, that I can really just try to rely on and try to implement tomorrow.
Madison Keys told Tennis Channel
Prior to setting up the clash with the 23-year-old, Keys breezed past Donna Vekic, while Swiatek, after registering a bagel against Diana Shnaider, still had to toil hard as their fourth round clash was pushed into the decider.
While Keys so far has reached two finals and won the Australian Open, Swiatek has not yet progressed to the summit clash since winning her fourth Roland Garros title last year. Last year, three of her five titles came on clay so she is expected to end her trophy drought during the clay swing.
Both the players failed to win more than one match in their previous clay-court tournament. The 30-year-old lost to Anna Kalinskaya in the Charleston Open fourth round. Swiatek, on the other hand, succumbed to a three-set defeat to Jelena Ostapenko, who improved her head-to-head record over the World No. 2 to 6-0.
Iga Swiatek reveals how she spent her day during the power outage in Spain
It seems tennis players, like many people around the world, struggle to put their phones away and spend time without the constant desire to pick up that distracting device. So when there was a widespread power outage in Spain and Portugal on Monday, Iga Swiatek too enjoyed the unexpected off day.
Honestly, it’s good that in Madrid, the sun sets in pretty late. As soon as it was kind a get down, it was dark. They put the energy back in our area so honestly, I just chilled and used that time to not think about what I should do. There was no signal. So no one used their phones…it was nice.
Iga Swiatek said during her on-court interview
Because of the power cut, a total of 22 combined ATP and WTA matches were rescheduled. Swiatek too was scheduled to lock horns with Diana Shnaider on Monday. But only three matches were completed, including Coco Gauff and Mirra Andreeva‘s. The power went out after 12 p.m. local time and came back around 9 p.m. local time.
Because of the power failure, Gauff, after her win over Belinda Bencic, couldn’t shower as there was no running water. She also had to walk to her hotel since the traffic lights were not working. But she enjoyed the day as she liked talking to other players, including her quarterfinal opponent Andreeva.
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