Swiatek rebounds from rare bagel to storm into Madrid semis

ROME – Iga Swiatek kept her Madrid Open title defence alive, as she avenged her Australian Open defeat by Madison Keys with a 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over the American in the quarter-finals on April 30.

Searching for her first title of the season, the second-seeded Swiatek recovered from a poor opening set to improve her clean record on clay against Keys to 4-0 and reach a third consecutive Madrid semi-final.

Keys knocked out the Pole on her way to a maiden Grand Slam title in Melbourne three months ago and seemed to have cracked the Swiatek code when she handed her a bagel in the first set on April 30.

However, Swiatek cut down on her errors and struck back to book a last-four clash with Coco Gauff or Mirra Andreeva.

“It was one of the weirdest matches I played. Madi was playing perfectly at the beginning. I just tried to play a bit shorter, put the ball in. I just stayed in there,” said Swiatek on court.

The five-time Grand Slam champion is famous for dishing out 6-0 sets and it was unusual for her to be on the receiving end of one.

“It didn’t feel good. At least it’s fast, you know, but that’s the only positive thing,” she said.

On the men’s draw, world No. 2 Alexander Zverev was knocked out in the round of 16 the previous day by Argentina’s Francisco Cerundolo, who beat the German – a two-time winner in Madrid – 7-5, 6-3 to repeat his feat from 2024.

“I didn’t play terrible, he just played better than me,” Zverev said.

Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic’s shock withdrawal from next week’s Italian Open should be a huge worry for the 24-time Grand Slam champion’s fans as he heads to the French Open without winning a match on clay this season, former Roland Garros winner Jim Courier said.

Djokovic, who turns 38 three days before the year’s second Grand Slam begins on May 25, has been out of form and was comprehensively beaten in his opening matches at Masters tournaments in Monte Carlo and Madrid in April.

The Serb was expected to jump-start his clay campaign in Rome before returning to Paris, where he won Olympic gold in 2024, but on April 29 he said he was skipping the Masters 1000 event, without providing a reason.

“That’s troubling. It’s worrying for me as a Novak fan,” Courier, who won back-to-back Roland Garros titles in 1991 and 1992, said on the Tennis Channel.

The American added that Rome would have been the perfect venue for Djokovic to find his rhythm as it had similar conditions to Paris without the challenge of playing at altitude in Madrid.

“If you’re going to play one between Madrid and Rome (then) Rome would be the one you would want to play to get ready for Roland Garros,” he added.

Djokovic, who is chasing a first tour-level title since his ATP Finals triumph in 2023, said in Madrid that he was trying to come to terms with a “new reality” in tennis where he is just “trying to win a match or two”.

He is yet to lift a trophy this season.

“I’m not really thinking about getting far in the tournament... It’s a completely different feeling from what I had in 20-plus years of professional tennis,” he said.

Courier said that he did not know what to make of Djokovic’s comments, but “I don’t like the way it feels in the gut” when he thinks about the Serb’s future.

He added: “It’s very strange to announce a pullout now, well in advance of it, and we’ll see what it all means when we get to Roland Garros.”

Italian Open organisers said “See you next year, Nole” on social media, but it remains to be seen whether Djokovic will take to the red clay of the Foro Italico again in his storied career.

REUTERS, AFP