Imperious Swiatek rolls Keys to seal place in Madrid Open final
The Pole was close to her very best as she set up a final against Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina
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Iga Swiatek was at her imperious best as she crushed American Madison Keys 6-1, 6-3 on Thursday to book her place in the final of the Madrid Open for the second year in a row.
The world No1ripped through the first set and when Keys tried to hit back at the start of the second set, Swiatek shut the door with brilliant returns, outstanding defence and blistering court coverage.
Swiatek, who made just eight unforced errors, will now play the winner of the second semi-final between Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina.
“It was a pretty clean performance and really solid game from myself,” Swiatek said. “I’m happy with everything.”
Swiatek races through first set
Keys had impressed on her way to the semi-finals, beating Coco Gauff and Ons Jabeur to set up a clash with Swiatek but in the first set, the Pole was all business, ripping groundstrokes and sending back Keys’ best serves on to her toes at the baseline.
The runner-up to Sabalenka last year, Swiatek was unstoppable as she struck early, breaking Keys at the first time of asking and then doing so again as she ripped through the opener, closing things out on a couple of break point chances for the American.
Keys throws everything at Swiatek
Swiatek would have been braced for more of a battle in the second set but again, her returns were doing the damage, denying Keys time to recover from her serve.
Swiatek broke for 2-1 and though Keys had a chance to break straight back, she couldn’t take it and Swiatek maintained her advantage, even in the face of some huge hitting from the American.
Keys tried everything she could think of to unsettle Swiatek’s rhythm and a couple of drop shots worked well but she never looked likely to recover the break.
Swiatek held serve for 5-3 and then broke Keys to love to finish things off, her third win over the American in four meetings.
Swiatek ready for final opponent
Swiatek has had her battles with Sabalenka (she leads the head to head 6-3) and especially with Rybakina, whom she trails 4-2. The Pole said she will need to execute her gameplan to take the title, whoever she plays.
“I wouldn’t say we’re trying to figure out, because we kind of know what I should play, but sometimes it wasn’t easy to implement it.,” she said of her previous battles with the pair.
“So I still feel like I haven’t played this match where I tactically played the best, you know, from the beginning till the end against these players.
“This is something that I want to kind of improve. So it’s not like we need to change a lot, but we need to, you know, stick to the plan and I need to implement it a little bit better, I think, sometimes.”
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