A day after she suffered a rare wobble against Russia’s Ekaterina Alexandrova, Swiatek rattled through a near-flawless 27-minute opening set against Petra Martic, a Croatian ranked 33 in the world, losing just eight points before going on to claim a 6-0, 6-3 victory. 

Since losing to Elena Rybakina at the Australian Open in January, the Polish world No 1 has claimed titles in Qatar and Stuttgart, made five consecutive semi-finals, and racked up eight successive wins on clay. In the absence of perfection, it is the kind of week-in, week-out consistency that quickly begins to feel like dominance – not that you will catch Swiatek dwelling on such considerations.

“I don’t really think about the previous matches, I just kind of wanted to get the experience of playing here and use it in further rounds,” said Swiatek, 21, who converted all four of the break points she held.

“I always want to be proactive and put pressure on my opponent, and today I felt really good, so I was able to do that. I broke Petra quickly, so I think it gave me a nice boost at the beginning.”

For Martic, who thwarted Barbora Krejcikova’s hopes of earning a tilt at a third successive victory over Swiatek, it was a case of one French Open champion too many. “Not much to lose,” the Croatian had said on learning that her reward for defeating the Czech, the winner in Paris two summers ago, was a meeting with the reigning champion. 

Yet Martic, herself a former quarter-finalist in both Paris and Madrid, has posted some eye-catching results against top players in recent times. Last year, she enjoyed wins over Jessica Pegula at Wimbledon and Paula Badosa at the US Open. Martic also defeated Belinda Bencic and Caroline Garcia on the clay courts of Lausanne, where she won the second tour-level title of her career, and more recently she saw off Maria Sakkari to reach the final in Linz. The 32-year-old, who will return to the world’s top 30 as a result of her run in Madrid, knows how to hold her own in elite company.

Against Swiatek, however, Martic was rarely able to impose her strengths. The Croatian possesses a powerful first serve, but could find neither consistency nor penetration with her delivery in the early stages, emerging from the first set with just one point from three service games – an extraordinary statistic at this level. With her forehand also misfiring, Martic had no foundation from which to bring the more subtle dimensions of her game to bear. Unable to conjure the drop shots and changes of pace that did for Krejcikova, the former world No 14 was instead reduced to contesting the baseline exchanges with her defensive skills. It was never enough to contain the weight and precision of Swiatek’s firepower.

Arguably the pick of the Pole’s 11 winners came at the start of the fifth game, when Swiatek stepped into a Martic sliced backhand to blast a forehand into the space just vacated by her opponent. The ball looked certain to sail wide, but the violent ferocity of Swiatek’s topspin was such that it dipped dramatically at the last moment, landing just inside the line. Martic shook her head in disbelief after that one. Champion on the indoor clay of Stuttgart last month, Swiatek is rapidly gaining momentum in the faster conditions of Madrid this month.

“Getting the experience of playing here, it [has been] easier and easier every match to stay disciplined sometimes and make the right decisions,” said Swiatek, who will face Veronika Kudermetova in the semi-finals after the Russian 12th seed defeated Pegula 6-4, 0-6, 6-4. 

“At the beginning I felt like I had to take care of stuff that was a little bit different than in Stuttgart, for example. But right now it has become more natural, and I can use my intuition a little bit more. That’s what I was looking for.”

Swiatek is also looking for a first triumph at the only big clay-court event she has yet to win. On this evidence, it will take something extraordinary to deny her.

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