Top half quarterfinal pairs are set at the 2021 Mutua Madrid Open: Ashleigh Barty vs. Petra Kvitova and Paula Badosa vs. Belinda Bencic.
In a clash of two most recent Roland Garros champions, top seed Ashleigh Barty beat seed No.14 Iga Swiatek 7-5 6-4 to win her 14th match in a row on red clay and end her opponent’s 9-0 winning streak on the surface.
Barty recovered from 3-0 down in the first set and edged it as Swiatek hit three double faults at 5-5. After that initial deficit, the 2019 French Open champion never dropped serve.
In the post-match interview, the Australian explained that she needed some time to adapt to Swiatek’s game:
I think it took me some time to get used to Iga’s weight of shot. Obviously, we had a game plan going into it, but I had to adjust that and had to kind of learn on the fly a little bit.
In the first third-round match on Monday, ninth seed and three-time champion Petra Kvitova got past Veronika Kudermetova 6-3 4-6 6-4 for her 32nd match win in Madrid and reach the quarterfinals at the tournament for the sixth time in her career.
Eighth seed Belinda Bencic moved into the quarterfinals when Ons Jabeur retired due to a right thigh injury at 7-6(2) 4-3. The Tunisian later tweeted that she hopes she will be back in time for Rome.
Supported by her home crowd, Paula Badosa became the first wildcard to reach the Madrid Open quarterfinals since 2017 with a 6-7 7-6(3) 6-0 win over Anastasija Sevastova.
Tuesday’s schedule will feature third-round matches in the bottom round of the draw. Keep checking back to Women’s Tennis Blog for more photos by Jimmie48 from Madrid.
