Iga Swiatek battled through “one of the weirdest matches” of her career, shaking off a disastrous start to defeat Madison Keys 0-6, 6-3, 6-2 and keep her Madrid Open title defense alive Wednesday.
After being steamrolled in the opening set, the world No. 2 found her rhythm and outlasted the fifth-ranked Keys in a gritty comeback on center court.
Swiatek will face Coco Gauff in the semifinals after the 21-year-old American ousted teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva in straight sets, setting up the youngest WTA 1000 semifinal clash since 2009.
“It was one of the weirdest matches I played,” Swiatek said. “Maddie was playing just perfectly at the beginning, and I wasn’t really proactive with anything. I let Maddie make more mistakes by just putting the ball back, and the momentum changed.”
On dropping the opening set 6-0, Swiatek added: “At least it was fast. That’s the only positive thing.”
It was their first meeting since the Australian Open semifinals, where Swiatek squandered a match point in a loss to Keys.
Swiatek is bidding to reach her third consecutive Madrid final. She defeated Aryna Sabalenka last year after losing to her in 2023.
Sabalenka, the No. 1 player in the world, was scheduled to face 24th-seeded Marta Kostyuk in her quarterfinal later Wednesday.
Swiatek hasn’t advanced past the semifinals at any tournament since last year’s French Open.
Gauff, ranked No. 4, beat the seventh-ranked Andreeva 7-5, 6-1. Andreeva turned 18 on Tuesday.
Since the introduction of the WTA 1000 tier, only the 2009 Indian Wells quarterfinal between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Agnieszka Radwanska had a younger combined age, according to the WTA.
Gauff recovered after trailing 5-4 in the first set and facing two set points.
“Off the ground, I think I was dictating most of the rallies, so happy with that,” Gauff said. “Overall, happy with everything.”
Both Gauff and Andreeva managed to finish their previous matches just before a massive blackout halted play across Spain and Portugal on Monday. More than 20 matches were postponed at the Caja Mágica tennis complex.
In the men’s draw, Matteo Arnaldi followed up his win over Novak Djokovic by defeating Frances Tiafoe 6-3, 7-5 to reach the quarterfinals of an ATP 1000 tournament for the second time.
Arnaldi has now recorded three straight wins over top-20 opponents for the first time in his career.
The Italian will next face Jack Draper, who advanced by beating Tommy Paul 6-2, 6-2 in just 68 minutes. Draper, ranked No. 6, clinched his first ATP 1000 title earlier this year in Indian Wells.
