Iga Swiatek defeats Ekaterina Alexandrova to the first quarterfinal in Madrid
Posted : 02 May 2023
A relieved Iga Swiatek said ‘that wasn’t easy’ after earning a gruelling three-set win over Ekaterina Alexandrova to reach the Madrid Open quarter-finals for the first time.
The world No. 1 battled to a 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 victory in two hours, 25 minutes to set up a last-eight clash with 27th seed Petra Martic of Croatia.
"That wasn’t an easy match," Swiatek said after a contest that went on until after 1am local time in the Spanish capital.
"In the second set, I had the lead and I lost it, so for sure it wasn’t easy, but I’m pretty happy that I could reset in the third.
“I was ready, I got a break pretty early, so overall I’m happy with the performance."
Swiatek got off to a shaky start as she fell 3-1 behind in the opening set, but she responded magnificently by winning nine of the next 11 games to go 6-4, 4-1 up.
The Pole served for the match at 5-4 in the second set, but Alexandrova saved a match point before breaking her opponent and levelling things up in the tie-break.
An early break for Swiatek in the decider set her off on the right track, and she finished strongly to hold off any chances of an upset.
In reaching the quarter-finals, Swiatek becomes the first player to reach this stage of eight consecutive clay court events since Simon Halep did so on 10 occasions between Bucharest 2016 and Madrid 2019.
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