Tennis-Swiatek Dismantles Keys To Reach Second Straight Madrid Final – News18

(Corrects headline to make clear story is about tennis)

Top seed Iga Swiatek made light work of Madison Keys to book a place in back-to-back finals of the Madrid Open as she beat the American 6-1 6-3 after 70 minutes in the semi-finals on Thursday.

Up next for Swiatek is the winner of the clash between second seed Aryna Sabalenka and number four Elena Rybakina, who meet later on Thursday.

Heading into the contest having won two of their last three meetings, the 22-year-old Pole dominated from the start and wrapped up the opener in just over half an hour against the 18th seed.

The second set was no different with Keys causing little trouble to Swiatek, who lost last year’s final to world number two Aryna Sabalenka, as the world number one broke early and raced into a 5-3 lead before breaking again to secure the win.

“I feel really good,” Swiatek said. “I wasn’t really thinking about what happened last year. But repeating this result is a great thing.

“I’ll have a chance to play a nice match in two days. So it’s really exciting. I’m happy overall with the whole tournament.”

Swiatek, a four-times Grand Slam champion, is now the youngest player to reach 10 WTA level finals on clay since Swiss Martina Hingis in 2000.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Reuters)