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Madrid (AFP)
Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka was proclaimed champion of the Madrid Tournament this Saturday by beating world number one Ashleigh Barty 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, while German Alexander Zverev qualified for the men’s final.
Sabalenka, 23, won the tenth and most important title of her career, taking in her revenge at the Stuttgart Tournament, where the Australian had won.
With her first trophy on clay, the Belarusian is making sure, incidentally, to get into the top five in the world starting Monday, a few weeks before Roland Garros, for which Barty remains a great favorite despite her defeat.
Intractable during her time at the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid, Sabalenka once again exhibited her attacking game to overcome the Australian in one hour and 41 minutes and disrupt Barty’s 16-game winning streak on European clay.
– ‘An incredible week’ –
It is the first time Barty has lost a final this season, having prevailed in Melbourne, before the Australian Open, in Miami in early April, and then on German brick dust.
“To be honest, after the Stuttgart final I was injured, I couldn’t move and wanted to retire,” Sabalenka said on the court after the match.
“But I have recovered well, in four days I felt better and now I am champion. It has been an incredible week,” he added.
Sabalenka started strong taking the first set with a resounding 6-0, but Barty reacted in the second set, helped by a precision drop from the Belarusian, taking the second set, the first that Sabalenka lost in the tournament.
In the third set, with 4-4 on the scoreboard, Sabalenka broke the serve of his rival to get 5-4 and close the match and the victory with his service.
Sabalenka succeeded the Dutch Kiki Bertens, winner in 2019, on the Madrid throne, since in 2020 the competition for the covid-19 pandemic was not held.
– Second final for the German-
In the morning, the German Alexander Zverev qualified for the men’s final, beating Austrian Dominic Thiem in two tees, by a clear 6-3 and 6-4.
Zverev, winner of the Madrid Masters 1000 in 2018, now awaits a rival for the match between Norwegian Casper Ruud and Italian Matteo Berretini.
Thiem could not take revenge in the 2018 final, in which he lost to the German, despite having won the last four meetings between the two, including the final of the last US Open, last August.
Zverev, winner on the eve of world number two, Rafa Nadal, did not give his rival any option, showing more aggressive against a Thiem, who quickly lacked energy and ended up paying for the two months that he has been away from the courts due to to the particular conditions caused by the covid pandemic.
“It was better than I expected,” said Thiem, who acknowledged that his rival “played very well serving 227, 228 and so you can’t do much. It was better.”
It took the German two early service breaks in each set to finish winning in just over an hour and a half.
“In general it was a good game but the work is not finished. I hope to maintain the level in the final,” said Zverev.
Zverev, 24, will try to become the first active player outside the ‘Big Four’ (Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray) to conquer at least four Masters 1000 this Sunday, being his eighth final in this type of tournaments.
© 2021 AFP
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