Iga Swiatek starts off Madrid with an opening win

Two of the Mutua Madrid Open's 2025 semifinalists got their 2026 campaigns under way on Thursday, with contrasting results. No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek, the 2024 champion, enjoyed a dominant 6-1, 6-2 victory over qualifier Daria Snigur in just 61 minutes. However, No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina fell 6-3, 6-4 to Hungary's Anna Bondar

Just 24 hours earlier, Snigur had pulled off one of the wildest wins of the tournament to date, ousting Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(13) in the sixth-longest third-set regular tiebreak of the century so far. But the Ukrainian, competing in the first clay-court WTA main draw of her career, was unable to impose her flat hitting on Swiatek.

Consecutive double faults in Snigur's opening service game led to an immediate break, and set the tone for the rest of the match. Swiatek landed 16 winners to Snigur's seven, while the latter was undone by 22 unforced errors. A slow start to the second set resulted in the Pole trailing 2-0, but she quickly righted the ship to concede just seven more points in the next six games.

Swiatek's third-round opponent will be No. 31 seed Ann Li, who defeated qualifier and American compatriot Alycia Parks 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-3.

wtatennis.com

Hard to judge Iga's level in this one given her opponent didn't put up much resistance. Facing Ann Li could prove more of a challenge and make for a more interesting match.

But a simple start like this is always good in the early rounds of any tournament.