“Gave me hope that maybe it will click” – Swiatek on how she looked to Rafael Nadal for inspiration during Madrid final
Down a break in the final set against Aryna Sabalenka, the world No 1 thought back to Nadal’s five-set win over Daniil Medvedev in the 2022 Australian Open final to give herself some hope
Iga Swiatek during the 2024 Madrid Open final (with Nadal)
Image Credit: Antoine Couvercelle / Panoramic/ Tennis Majors
Early in the third set of Saturday’s Madrid Open final against her closest rival Aryna Sabalenka, world No 1 Iga Swiatek found herself down a break. The Pole was still feeling the tension and was not hitting free even as the Belarusian seemed to be finding the range with her power-packed groundstrokes.
At that time, Swiatek looked towards Rafael Nadal for inspiration and hope. The Pole has been a long-time fan of the 22-time Grand Slam champion and dialed back to the Spaniard’s win over Daniil Medvedev in the 2022 Australian Open final. On that occasion, Nadal found himself two sets to love down after two hours but then mounted a comeback to win in five sets.
“For most of the match, I was really trying to loosen up a little bit more. I felt like I can play better because I played better here on my past matches. Actually, felt like I need to dig through for these two hours and it didn’t really work. I was, like, Oh, my God, am I going to feel a little bit more loose soon? It didn’t really happen, and then after two hours, it did. I was surprised by that.”
“Honestly, one thing that came through my mind was actually that I think Rafa had couple of matches like that. Guys have three sets, so they may have a little bit more time on Grand Slams to do that. But I remember exactly when he was playing Medvedev in Australia and it clicked for him. It felt like it. He also struggled for a bit of time with some, he was tense and I think stressed. I’m not sure because I haven’t talked to him. But it felt like that. That kind of gave me hope that maybe it will click, even after two hours.”
I wanted to be courageous in that moment.
Iga Swiatek on facing matchpoint against her late in the third set
When it did finally click, Swiatek broke back to level the final set and matched Sabalenka shot-for-shot as the two rivals didn’t spare the other an inch. The match went down to a deciding set tiebreaker but not before the Pole saved two matchpoints late in the third.
“Before the tiebreaker, I was, like, well, I was, like, okay, she has a match point. Sometimes it happens that I lose my serve, when it’s 5-4 or something like that. So I was, okay, whatever. It’s not the first time in my life. I’m just going to go for it. I think I decided to play, like, a fast serve, a big one. I wanted to be courageous in that moment.”
“I think we both kind of deserved to win today” – Swiatek
Eventually after 3 hours and 11 minutes of enthralling tennis, Swiatek saved a third matchpoint in the tiebreaker before converting her second matchpoint to claim her seventh win in 10 meetings over Sabalenka and win the Madrid title for the first time in her career.
“A lot of emotions. But for sure I’m really proud of myself and really happy, because when you have matches like that and when you actually have to fight through some stuff, it makes it even better. So I’m really proud of myself. I think we both kind of deserved to win today. I think it was only about these little points in the tiebreaker.
“I tend to erase most of the stuff when it already happened. So it’s hard to compare with previous matches. But I would say looking at only the finals, I think it was the most intense and crazy final I played.”
