Two weeks ago, Swiatek won 6-3, 6-4 in the final in Stuttgart (Germany), already on clay. The two-time champion of Roland-Garros (2020 and 2022) knows her first defeat on ochre in 2023, after nine victories in a row.
Sabalenka won her third trophy of the season, after the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of her career, and Adelaide just before.
Never before had the Belarusian, who celebrated her 25th birthday the day before, beaten Swiatek on clay. Her two previous victories against the 21-year-old Pole were on hard courts at the Masters, in 2021 and 2022.
Sabelenka scrapped nearly two and a half hours with the world No. 1 to overcome it on Saturday night. Until the last game, in which Swiatek saved three match balls, including one from a snatch pass almost sitting on the Madrid clay, and another from a winning return on a serve at 196 km/h, before giving way on the fourth.
Before that, Sabalenka had made the best start before Swiatek, who had become more solid, came back to level a set everywhere.
In the decisive set, intense, where the two players surrendered blow for blow, Sabalenka escaped three games to nil, Swiatek stuck well once again, but she ended up dropping the flag against the repeated overpowered assaults of the world N.2.
Aryna Sabalenka on May 6 in Madrid © Thomas COEX / AFP
With this 29th match won in 2023, Sabalenka confirms her status as the player who has accumulated the most victories since the beginning of the season.
© 2023 AFP