MADRID: Aryna Sabalenka gave herself an early birthday gift by easing into the Madrid Open final for the second time in three years on Thursday and then plotted revenge on world number one Iga Swiatek.

The world number two turns 25 on Friday and the Belarusian celebrated in style by breezing past Greek world number nine Maria Sakkari, 6-4, 6-1. She won an impressive 70.7% of her first serve points and saved five of six break points while sending down four aces against Sakkari.

Sabalenka, the 2021 champion in Madrid, will face Swiatek in Saturday’s championship match after the French and US Open winner swept aside 13th-ranked Veronika Kudermetova 6-1, 6-1.

Reigning Australian Open champion Sabalenka will be chasing a fifth WTA 1000 title, a 13th career title overall and third in 2023.

She will have the opportunity to avenge her straight-sets defeat to Swiatek in last month’s Stuttgart championship match.

“I really want this revenge,” she said. “It would be really great to be able to defeat a player like Iga on clay. In Stuttgart, I was rushing on the short balls, I tried too hard for the winning shot. This time, I played with more patience and waited for the right ball to finish the point.”

Top seed Swiatek enjoys a 5-2 win-loss record against Sabalenka, having also won the pair’s three previous clay-court meetings.

The Pole marched into her maiden final in Madrid in a clinical display against the 12th seed Kudermetova, impr­oving her head-to-head record against the Russian to 4-0.

It will be the third time in the last 40 years that the world top two will meet twice in the same season on clay after Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova in 2013, and Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert back in 1984.

In men’s singles, world number five Stefanos Tsitsipas cra­s­hed out following a 7-6 (7-5), 5-7, 6-3 defeat by Ger­many’s lucky loser Jan-Len­nard Struff in the quarter-finals.

In-form Struff will next face qualifier Aslan Karatsev as both reached their first Masters 1000 semi-final, the Russian doing so by beating China’s Zhang Zhizhen 7-6 (7-3), 6-4 earlier on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, May 6th, 2023