Swiatek ousts Kudermetova to reach first Madrid final

World No.1 Iga Swiatek booked a spot in the first Mutua Madrid Open final of her career with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 victory over No.12 seed Veronika Kudermetova in a late-night semifinal on Thursday.

The top seed Swiatek took 1 hour and 19 minutes to prevail at the first WTA 1000 clay-court event of the season, improving her 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 past 40 years 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 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.

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.