Memory Lane

Madrid Memories 2016: Halep reigns in Spain, Cibulkova soars

Look back on a fantastic tournament when Simona Halep and Dominika Cibulkova showed their class on clay after some big upsets in the early rounds.

01 /19
Playing the European clay season for the first time, 18-year-old future World No.1 Naomi Osaka made her Madrid debut in 2016 qualifying, upsetting No.6 seed Zheng Saisai but falling to No.16 seed Alison Riske in the final round.

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02 /19
Monica Puig - whose 2016 would be a career-best season including the Olympic gold medal, her biggest WTA final in Sydney and a career-high ranking - came through qualifying, but fell to Sabine Lisicki in round one.

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03 /19
For the second straight year, Barbora Strycova took a Top 10 scalp in the first round, upsetting Australian Open champion and No.2 seed Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-2.

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04 /19
The tournament lost its top two seeds in the first round as World No.38 Dominika Cibulkova eliminated No.1 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-3 - the Slovak's ninth career Top 3 win and the first of three wins over Radwanska in 2016.

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05 /19
Camila Giorgi took the spoils in an all-Italian first round derby to upset No.15 seed Sara Errani 7-5, 7-5, coming from 3-5 down in both sets - but a back injury forced the Katowice runner-up to withdraw before her next match.

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06 /19
Danka Kovinic, fresh off becoming the first Montenegrin player to reach a WTA final in Istanbul, carried her stellar form over, upsetting No.7 seed Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-2 in the first round for her first - and so far only - Top 10 victory.

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07 /19
American qualifier Louisa Chirico was ranked a lowly World No.130, but the rising 19-year-old turned heads with her second Top 20 win of the clay season in the second round, a 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 defeat of No.14 seed Ana Ivanovic.

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08 /19
Dominika Cibulkova backed up her big first-round win by pulling off a remarkable comeback against Caroline Garcia in the second round, triumphing 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 after trailing 0-6, 0-3.

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09 /19
Irina-Camelia Begu added to No.4 seed Garbiñe Muguruza's patchy start to 2016 in round two, upsetting the Spaniard in front of her home crowd for her first Top 5 scalp; nonetheless, Muguruza would bounce back to win Roland Garros a month later.

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10 /19
Another Romanian, qualifier Patricia Maria Tig, knocked off three rising stars - Daria Kasatkina, Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys - to reach the biggest quarterfinal of her career to date, cracking the Top 100 for the first time as a result.

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11 /19
The unseeded Daria Gavrilova was also a noteworthy upset artist, reaching her first Premier Mandatory quarterfinal with back-to-back straight-set defeats of No.12 seed Elina Svitolina and No.5 seed - and defending champion - Petra Kvitova.

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12 /19
Perennially dangerous on clay, Samantha Stosur served notice that she was rounding into form by upsetting No.8 seed Carla Suárez Navarro in round three en route to the semifinals - a stage the Australian would also reach at Roland Garros a month later.

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13 /19
2014 runner-up Simona Halep dropped just 10 games in her first three matches en route to the quarterfinals, where she survived a 6-3, 0-6, 6-1 rollercoaster against compatriot Irina-Camelia Begu.

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14 /19
Louisa Chirico benefited from a No.4 seed Victoria Azarenka handing her a walkover in the third round due to a back injury, but the American continued her fairytale run on court by beating Daria Gavrilova 7-6(1), 6-2 to make her first WTA semifinal.

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15 /19
A ruthless Simona Halep needed only 52 minutes to dismiss Samantha Stosur 6-2, 6-0 in the semifinals and book her place in her first final of 2016, and second in Madrid - but Stosur would avenge the loss a month later in the fourth round of Roland Garros.

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16 /19
Dominika Cibulkova was equally stingy: having fought through three-setters in her first four matches, the Slovak hit top form to rout Louisa Chirico 6-1, 6-1, moving into the biggest clay final of her career.

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17 /19
In the final, Halep got off to a lightning start and didn't look back, never dropping serve as she closed Cibulkova out 6-2, 6-4 to capture the second Premier Mandatory trophy of her career following Indian Wells 2015.

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18 /19
Halep's 12th career title moved her back into the Top 5 after a five-week dip out of it, while Cibulkova re-entered the Top 30 as part of a career-best season that took her from World No.66 in February to the WTA Finals title and World No.5 by year end.

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19 /19
The title would kickstart Halep's year: she would lift further trophies in Bucharest and Montréal and post her third consecutive Top 5 finish - although 2016 would be the only season since 2013 in which she failed to reach a major semifinal.

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