May 02, (THEWILL) – Iga Swiatek had to battle her way through a gruelling three-set match against Ekaterina Alexandrova, to reach the quarter-finals of the Madrid Open.
Swiatek, the current world number one in women’s tennis, won the match in two hours and 25 minutes, securing her first-ever quarter-finals appearance in the tournament. Her next opponent will be 27th seed Petra Martic of Croatia.
The top seed did not have the best start, falling behind 3-1 in the opening set, but she quickly regained her footing, winning nine of the next 11 games to take the set and go up 4-1 in the second. Despite serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set, Alexandrova fought back to save a match point and even the score in the tie-break.
However, Swiatek broke early in the third set and finished strong to secure the win. In reaching the quarter-finals, Swiatek has achieved a remarkable feat, becoming the first player to reach this stage in eight consecutive clay court events since Simona Halep did so on ten occasions between 2016 and 2019.
Her next match against Martic promises to be another tough encounter, with the winner set to face either Jessica Pegula or Veronika Kudermetova in the semi-finals.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
