Aryna Sabalenka continues to slay the competition — Final quotes from Madrid
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, May 6, 2025
Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! We’re halfway through the red dirt double and before we go preview Rome, let’s tackle Madrid. Aryna Sabalenka further cemented herself as the player to beat by capturing her third Mutua Madrid Open final. The Belarusian took home her twentieth career WTA singles title with a straight set win over Coco Gauff. In fact, Sabalenka only dropped on set in her six matches — the first set against Elise Mertens in the third round.
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While red clay is known to be the slowest surface on tour, Madrid plays a bit faster than you would expect — especially compared to Rome, in my opinion. Sabalenka continuing to dominate in the Spanish capital isn’t too much of a surprise. Her huge serve set up her even bigger groundstrokes but, like I’ve mentioned before, it’s her transition game to finish at the net that I’m most impressed and excited by. While I think she’s already built a Hall of Fame career, she’s starting to blossom into perhaps the player that will define her generation.
This week, Sabalenka crossed the 11,000 ranking point threshold — only the third player to ever do so behind Serena Williams and Iga Swiatek. Right now, she has an over 3,000 point lead in the rankings over No. 2 Swiatek and in the Race to Riyadh, she has more than 1,000 points on No. 2 Madison Keys. Her lead in the rankings is extra impressive because she withdrew from Wimbledon, a place she’s twice reached the semifinal. She’s played eight tournaments in 2025 and reached the championship match in six of them. However, while reaching finals has certainly gotten her to where she’s at, Madrid is only the third title she captured this year.
Finals have been a big hurdle for Sabalenka, who lost three-set battles to Madison Keys and Mirra Andreeva in Melbourne and Indian Wells, specifically. Though she rebounded with a Miami title, the World No. 1 was overwhelmed by an iron-hot Jelena Ostapenko. Sabalenka is usually a staple making the semifinals or final in pretty much every tournament she plays in, but the final roadblock constantly is her toughest opponent. In her career, the Belarussian is 20-17 in singles finals with only five coming in final sets.
I’m not saying pencil in Sabalenka to reach the final in Rome or at Roland Garros. However, I’m not not saying it, either. The Madrid final over Gauff, who has regained some of her top form and destroyed Swiatek, 6-1, 6-1 in the semifinals, is a good omen for how things could come. Rome will be an even better indicator to gauge how Sabalenka is feeling, as she holds only a 9-6 record at the tournament following last year’s runner-up finish.
Main draw play at Rome kicks off today, with play continuing the next 10 days. To me, Madrid is about getting your feet wet with the red clay and Rome is about showing who’s really going to contend for Roland Garros. The storyline I’m most keeping an eye on is Iga Swiatek. There were some rumors she might shut down the rest of her clay court season following her Madrid loss, but I think those are just that. It was also reported that she lost her grandfather and attended his funeral right before Madrid, which could explain the Pole seeming a bit off and not as present as she usually is. The tight turnaround, combined with her title drought approaching a year, Rome could be seen as a make-or-break for the World No. 2. Swiatek could also potentially leave Rome as the No. 4 player with only 530 points separating her and Jessica Pegula. With last year’s points taken off, Pegula assumes the No. 2 ranking and a new career high according to the live rankings.
Now, for my predictions. Like always, take a grain of salt — especially since qualifiers haven’t finished and been placed. Anything can happen!
Round of 16
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. Marta Kostyuk
(11) Elena Rybakina def. (8) Zheng Qinwen
(4) Coco Gauff def. (15) Amanda Anisimova
(7) Mirra Andreeva def. (10) Emma Navarro
(6) Jasmine Paolini def. (17) Jelena Ostapenko
(3) Jessica Pegula def. (13) Diana Shnaider
(5) Madison Keys def. Naomi Osaka
(16) Elina Svitolina def. (2) Iga Swiatek
Quarterfinals
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (11) Elena Rybakina
(4) Coco Gauff def. (7) Mirra Andreeva
(3) Jessica Pegula def. (6) Jasmine Paolini
(16) Elina Svitolina def. (5) Madison Keys
Semifinals
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (4) Coco Gauff
(16) Elina Svitolina def. (3) Jessica Pegula
Final
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (16) Elina Svitolina
On to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
Anna Kalinskaya and Sorana Cirstea were an on-site entry and emerged with the doubles trophy by knocking out Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens. What’s perhaps even more shocking is that is was Kalinskaya’s first-ever title on tour:
Naomi Osaka admits that she needed more reps to rebuild her confidence and after a tough loss in her Madrid opener, she took a wildcard into the L’Open 35 de Saint Malo, a WTA 125 event in France. She would leave with the first clay court title of her career, beating Kaja Juvan in the final. The doubles title was won by Maia Lumsden and Makoto Ninomiya, who downed Oksana Kalashnikova and Angelica Moratelli.
At the Catalonia Open in Vic, Spain, Dalma Galfi won her second consecutive WTA 125 singles title by routing Rebeka Masarova. Bianca Andreescu and Aldila Sutjiadi, who both are early on in returns from a layoff, won the doubles title over Lulu Sun and Leylah Fernandez.
Anastasija Sevastova is only a few tournaments after coming back from ACL surgery, but the Latvian is grateful to be back on court.
Venus Williams will be commentating for the first time, making her debut at Roland Garros for TNT:
For the first time since 2000, Sao Paolo, Brazil will be hosting a WTA tournament. The WTA 250 will be replacing the sanction that was used by the Jasmine Open in Monastir, Tunisia.
College tennis could be on the verge of a huge landscape change.
Will the PTPA lawsuit outlast the bodies that serve the tour or will the player-led initiative finally change the course of tennis history?
Unfortunately, Paula Badosa admits her severe back injury will have her retiring sooner than later.
Well done to the Madrid content team for gems like this:
Congratulations to Paris Olympic semifinalist Anna Karolina Schmeidlova, who announced she’s expecting her first child.
Dieter Kindlmann, who previously coached Maria Sharapova and Madison Keys, spoke about the importance of Challengers, his career and what’s next for him.
If you’re into social media metrics, the WTA shared that they’ve reached record numbers in the first quarter of the year.
Something else to keep your eye on, INTENNSE, a professional tennis league debuting next month
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Five at The IX: Madrid Week 2
Q. You are happy athlete, a happy tennis player, but you work hard. You are moving better in the court, and you are trying dropshots because you hit so hard that you have to control, how have you done an evolution since you played doubles with Mertens, for instance?
ARYNA SABALENKA: Yeah, I think, I mean, overall being an athlete it’s always working on yourself, always getting better, always step back, look at your game, and see what you have to improve, and go out there on the practice court and work for it.
I’ve been working really hard and improving my game on bringing variety into my game, I think that’s the biggest key in most of the matches right now. I’m super happy that we were able to improve my game in, honestly, in everything, the movement, my touch game is much better right now, I trust my touch game much more right now also. Kind of like trying to come to the net, I’m not sure if it’s really successful so far, but I’m trying (laughing). I think it’s always work on yourself, and always looking for something to improve and get better at.
Q. You’ve played Aryna now 10 times, I think. Just wondering, when you look at how she’s playing right now, her numbers this year are quite crazy also, because like she played eight tournaments, made six finals, won three of them. When you see how she’s playing right now, is there anything in particular you feel that she’s added to her game that is better than what you know about her?
COCO GAUFF: I feel like she just got a lot better in everything. Probably every time I play her is tough and, yeah, I don’t think today she played me any different than the other few, or 10 times we played. Yeah, I think last time we played I was serving better and it went my way.
Yeah, maybe she moves a little bit better, but she’s always been tough to play. So, yeah, I think she just probably is more confident, so that’s why the consistent results are happening, but she’s always been a great player.
Q. Given that you haven’t been playing your best but you still managed to fight your way through to the semifinals, is there a positive to take from that that you’re fighting no matter what?
IGA SWIATEK: Yeah, for sure, you know, I didn’t play well even on these matches that I won. I think I, you know, pushed kind of with my head, you know, for more than I even like should, tennis-wise.
Yeah, like, today for sure everything kind of collapsed, you know, both tennis-wise and, yeah, I feel like I wasn’t even in the right place with my feet, you know, before the shots. So, yeah, I wish I would have moved better, because I think that would get me, you know, any opportunity to bounce back, because this is usually what happens. But today, yeah, for sure I didn’t move well.
Q. You rehired Andy Bettles end of last year or fall of last year. Just wondering, we’re seeing it also with Maria Sakkari, she reunited with Tom, it seems that there could be a level of comfort returning to someone who knows you well. Can you talk a little bit about that decision, how you feel it’s panning out, and is it difficult sometimes to go back to someone who you split with, or was it a very easy thing to do?
ELINA SVITOLINA: Well, in my case, well, I worked with Andy for I think five years or something like that, so of course we have a lot of great memories, a lot of tough moments as well that we went through together.
To be fair, when we stopped it was nothing really, like we didn’t had any argument, it just was, wanted to try something different. So at that stage of my career, why not. I mean, of course you want to find something, maybe a little inspiration as well. Sometimes with the routine you get little bit tired, and, yeah, it can be different things.
So, for me after, well, it was three years later, you know, when I stop with Raemon, I was looking for someone, of course, that I know little bit. And, yeah, as I found out that Andy also was stopping with Jil, the timing was just perfect. Because in the middle of the season it’s not easy to switch the coach, so everything just fall in place at that time.
Yeah, very happy. We are as never been apart with him. Yeah, I feel like we have our routine, and we see things the same way, the things that I have to improve and things that we want to work on, so, yeah, I’m happy.
Q. You are the third woman in history that has achieved 11,000 points, just ahead of Serena, how do you feel with these kind of achievements?
ARYNA SABALENKA: Well, I don’t know that sounds crazy, honestly. It’s just incredible, I don’t know how I was able to achieve that. I believe that we are doing the right things and things are working, and hopefully it’s just going to keep getting better and bigger. I’m super motivated right now.
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
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| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
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