Top seed Swiatek took 1 hour and 19 minutes to prevail at the first WTA 1000 clay-court event of the season, improving her dominant head-to-head record against Kudermetova to 4-0. Swiatek has never lost more than six games in a match against Kudermetova.
1 vs. 2 again: For the second straight Hologic WTA Tour event, Swiatek will meet World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final. Sabalenka won the day’s first semifinal over No.9 seed Maria Sakkari.
Eleven days ago, Swiatek topped Sabalenka in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final in Stuttgart. Overall, Swiatek brings a 5-2 win-loss record against Sabalenka into Saturday’s Madrid final. Swiatek has also won all three of their previous clay-court meetings.
This will be only the third time in the last 40 years that the World No.1 and No.2 will face each other two times on clay during a single season. It also happened in 1984 (Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert in Amelia Island and Roland Garros) and 2013 (Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in Stuttgart and Roland Garros).
This is also the first time the World No.1 and No.2 will square off in a WTA 1000 final since top-ranked Serena Williams beat second-ranked Li Na for the 2014 Miami Open title.
Streaking Swiatek: Since the start of last season, Swiatek is 27-1 on clay, with her only defeat on the surface during that timeframe coming in the 2022 Warsaw quarterfinals against Caroline Garcia.
By making her seventh career WTA 1000 final this fortnight, Swiatek ties Caroline Wozniacki for the most WTA 1000 final appearances achieved before turning 22 years old (dating back to the start of the WTA 1000 tier in 2009).
Match facts: Kudermetova reached the semifinal via back-to-back Top 10 wins over Daria Kasatkina and Jessica Pegula, but her run was stopped by Swiatek, who won 50 percent of Kudermetova's first-service points and 63 percent of points returning Kudermetova's second serve.
Swiatek won the first seven points of the match en route to a 5-1 lead, then saved a break point in that game with a rally backhand winner before closing out the set.
Top-seeded Swiatek took another commanding 4-1 lead in the second set, but Kudermetova powered to four break points in that game. Swiatek erased each of those chances as she methodically moved to victory without ever dropping serve in the nightcap.
9-0 on clay in 2023
4 finals in 6 tournaments in 202317th career final! 1st in Madrid!
The 3rd player in the Open Era to win all of her first 8 WTA semi-finals held on clay after Peaches Bartkowicz (between 1968 and 1969) and Venus Williams (between 1998 and 2003). Fantastic.
WTA's world number 1 and number 2 are facing each other in back-to-back tournaments for the first time since
First player to reach 8+ finals in her first 14 WTA tournaments played on clay since Monica Seles (between 1989 and 1992, 13 of the first 14).
WTA's world number 1 and number 2 are facing each other in back-to-back tournaments for the first time since
#1 Martina Hingis #2 Lindsay Davenport played the 2000 Indian Wells and Miami finals. 23 years ago.
And the all black outfit is on point! :).
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