Aryna Sabalenka is in no mood to give up her pursuit of Iga Swiatek just yet.
It feels like a lifetime ago that the 25-year-old Belarusian supplanted Swiatek as world No 1 only to relinquish the crown eight weeks later at the WTA Finals in Cancún. The six months since have been a mixed bag for Sabalenka, who won her second grand slam title at the Australian Open, then suffered an unexpected dip in form that was compounded by tragedy in her personal life.
Her struggles have continued at the Madrid Open, where she has been taken the distance in all but one of her matches so far, but there appears to be light at the end of the tunnel. On Thursday night, Sabalenka produced her finest performance of the tournament to win an absorbing semi-final battle against Elena Rybakina. In the process, she ensured she would not be overtaken as world No 2 by Coco Gauff, maintained her defence of the title she won last year against Swiatek, and ended Rybakina’s 16-match winning streak on clay.
None of those outcomes looked likely when Rybakina, who had barely put a foot wrong all night, lined up an inviting short ball that would have given her a match point late in the second set. But the world No 4 screwed a forehand narrowly wide, then compounded her mistake with another error, and suddenly Sabalenka had an unlikely route back into a contest she had trailed by a set and a break.
It was a reprieve she grabbed with both hands, battling to a 1-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) victory that not only kept her nestled behind Swiatek in the rankings but also set up a rematch of last year’s final against the 22-year-old Pole, who earlier defeated Madison Keys in straight sets.
“Probably that was the key moment,” said Sabalenka, perhaps somewhat unconvincingly, given that she initially struggled to recall it. “I don’t know how I was able to come back in this match. Probably she missed her opportunities, I used my opportunities. Maybe that was the key point; I don’t even remember. My memory is terrible.”
The latter claim was as unpersuasive as the Belarusian’s alleged recollection of Rybakina’s pivotal miss. Asked if last year’s win over Swiatek was the best performance of her career on clay, Sabalenka remembered it vividly enough to go even further, pronouncing it the best of the 26 tour-level finals she has contested. Some things clearly stick in the mind.
“I would say definitely that was the best match I ever played, especially on a clay court,” she said. “I think the level was just super high. It was clean, it was an intense, powerful game. I think that was the best final I ever played.”
Judging by the dominant manner in which Swiatek dispatched Keys, Sabalenka will need to reach similar heights in Saturday’s final if she is to retain her crown. Having dropped her only set of the tournament to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the previous round, the Pole moved smoothly through the gears against Keys, securing an early break before stretching her lead in trademark style. The 20th-ranked American had her moments in the second set, but they were few and far between. A repeat of her 2022 win over Swiatek in Cincinnati was never on the cards.
“Tennis-wise, I feel like I’m playing better every day,” said Swiatek. “But on the other hand, it doesn’t really matter, every day is different. I would say in finals it’s more about the mentality and how you maintain the right attitude and focus.”
Sabalenka showed those qualities in abundance against Rybakina, fashioning a win that owed as much to sheer force of will as the quality of her play. Suffocated early on by Rybakina’s destructive serving and precise, powerful play off the ground, the Belarusian found herself a set down in 24 minutes. When Rybakina then snatched another early break to open up a 3-1 second-set lead, Sabalenka looked down and out. But having forced her way back into contention, she matched Rybakina step for step down the stretch, fighting off two break points at 5-5 before winning five of the first six points in the climactic tiebreak to create the platform for a memorable victory.
Rybakina, who had not lost a deciding set since her shock defeat to Anna Blinkova at the Australian Open, could only reflect ruefully on a result that ended a run of 12 consecutive victories when taken the distance. The most recent of those three-set wins came when she recovered from two match points down against Yulia Putintseva in the previous round, but there was to be no repeat of the stunning winners that baled her out of trouble on that occasion.
Instead, Rybakina could only reflect ruefully on the vital missed forehand that would have given her a match point and an opportunity to compete for a second straight clay-court trophy, following last month’s title run in Stuttgart.
“It’s a pity to lose,” said Rybakina. “I had this ball on top of the net at 5-4, 30-30, it’s a pity when you have this opportunity, but I didn’t play it well… It is what it is.”