Iga Swiatek survived “one of the weirdest matches” after losing the first six games and recovering to defeat Madison Keys 0-6 6-3 6-2 and stay on track to defend her title at the Madrid Open.
Her semi-final opponent will be the USA’s Coco Gauff, who defeated teenager Mirra Andreeva in straight sets, 7-5 7-1.
Poland’s Swiatek was overpowered by Keys early in their quarter-final but eventually found a way to rally past the fifth-ranked American on centre court.
“It was one of the weirdest matches I played,” the second-ranked Swiatek said. “Maddie was playing just perfectly at the beginning and I wasn’t really proactive with anything. I let Maddie do more mistakes by just putting the ball back and the momentum changed.
“At least it was fast, that’s the only positive thing. I just stayed in there. Obviously it wasn’t easy.”
It was the first meeting between the two since Swiatek squandered a match point in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, a clash that was eventually won by Keys.
Swiatek is trying to reach her third straight Madrid final – she beat Aryna Sabalenka last year after losing to her in 2023.
The 23-year-old has not gone past the semi-finals at any tournament since last year’s French Open.
Swiatek is through to the semi-finals of the Madrid Open after what she described as ‘one of the weirdest matches’ vs Keys
Sabalenka, the No 1 player in the world, faces 24th-seed Marta Kostyuk later on Wednesday in her quarter-final match.
Fourth-seed Gauff got past seventh-ranked Andreeva in the Spanish capital. The 21-year-old needed just 92 minutes to earn the win against Andreeva, who turned 18 on Tuesday.
Both Gauff and Andreeva had been able to finish their matches in the previous round just before play was paused because of the major blackout that brought Spain and Portugal to a standstill on Monday. More than 20 matches had to be postponed at the Caja Magica tennis complex.
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