No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus sailed past American foe Peyton Stearns 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday to reach the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Sabalenka headlines an intriguing final eight at the WTA 1000 event, which will also feature a duel between No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland and No. 5 Madison Keys of the U.S. after they took care of business Tuesday.
Sabalenka saved 12 of 13 break points, including 10-for-10 in the first set, while winning 28 of her 36 first-serve points (77.8 percent).
It marked the World No. 1’s 28th match victory this year, which leads the WTA Tour by one over Jessica Pegula.
As she searches for her second WTA 1000 title of 2025 following last month’s triumph in Miami, Sabalenka will face Ukrainian No. 24 seed Marta Kostyuk in the quarterfinals. Kostyuk was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Russia’s Anastasia Potapova in the Round of 16.
Swiatek fended off a push from Russian 13th seed Diana Shnaider and won 6-0, 6-7 (3), 6-4 on Tuesday.
Swiatek felt she moved better and put greater spin on her shots during the third set, when she won all five of her service games and 14 of 19 first-service points.
“In second set it got pretty windy, and I didn’t move my legs properly,” Swiatek said after the match. “I played some shots like not being ready, you know, so for sure that kind of kept my rhythm off. And then Diana also used her chances, and she was more proactive than in the first set. So I think it was a mix of different things.”
Australian Open champion Keys eased past No. 19 seed Donna Vekic of Croatia 6-2, 6-3. Keys saved 2 of 3 break points while converting 5 of 8 break-point opportunities against Vekic.
Keys faces a tall task in the quarterfinals against her Polish counterpart. Swiatek is 4-2 against Keys all-time.
“I think obviously you look at matches that you won and you figure out why you won them, and you look at matches why you lost, and you try to figure out what you did wrong or what she did really well that day and then you try to come up with a game plan,” Keys said of facing Swiatek.
“I think obviously it’s a little bit different when you’re on a surface that she loves (clay) and she does really well on and all of that. I think you have to take that into account and just kind of go one step further with that and just try to figure out how do you kind of elevate your game a little bit more because I think you have to.”
Also Tuesday, No. 17 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine beat Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-4, and Japan’s Moyuka Uchijima overcame No. 21 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia 6-4, 7-6 (5).
The quarterfinals will also see No. 4 seed Coco Gauff take on No. 7 seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia. Gauff and Andreeva won their Round of 16 matches Monday before a nationwide power outage occurred in Spain, postponing the tournament.
–Field Level Media
