Madrid (Spain) – As happened in the three previous duels, the Polish Iga Swiatek dominated the experienced Romanian Sorana Cirstea, currently 30th in the ranking, and thus secured herself in the round of 16 of the WTA 1000 in Madrid. The world number 1 spent just 80 minutes to score a double 6/1.
Swiatek also got rid of the reunion with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka, who was surprised by the good variation tennis of local Sara Sorribes. The 55th in the world won 7/5 and 6/3, after a second set that saw four consecutive service breaks. The Pole won all three clashes against the Spaniard, always with big scores, including the United Cup in January.
With no risk of losing her top spot in the rankings, the Pole is trying for her first title on the fast clay of Madrid, where she reached the final last year but fell to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka. This season, Swiatek has already won two 1000-level tournaments, in Doha and Indian Wells.
Very calm departure
The game was played under a closed roof due to rain at the start of the round in Madrid and Swiatek quickly adapted to the even faster conditions in the main stadium. Despite the long games, he always chose the best moves and saw Cirstea despair in moments of pressure. With that, she opened 5/0 and served to try another ‘tire’ in her career, but played her worst game of the set and was broken. She reacted immediately by putting a lot of pressure on the returns and closed the series.
The second set started a little more balanced, but Cirstea did not produce in the moments when she had to play with the second serve and thus lost two more serves and lost for the fifth time against a ranking leader.
