{"id":102595,"date":"2025-05-03T08:56:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-03T06:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mutuamadridopen.com\/?p=102595"},"modified":"2025-05-03T08:57:54","modified_gmt":"2025-05-03T06:57:54","slug":"sabalenka-in-crazy-form-heading-into-final-clash-with-gauff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/sabalenka-in-crazy-form-heading-into-final-clash-with-gauff\/","title":{"rendered":"Sabalenka in ‘crazy’ form heading into final clash with Gauff"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Aryna Sabalenka was told that she had just booked herself a spot in the final for a fourth consecutive tournament with her win over Elina Svitolina on Thursday, the world No.1 was legitimately surprised.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t even thinking about that. It sounds crazy,\u201d said Sabalenka when the interviewer told her she made finals in Indian Wells, Miami, Stuttgart and now Madrid.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just super grateful for every opportunity I have and honestly that\u2019s crazy that I\u2019m playing at such a high level; just wow!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Wow\u2019 is definitely an appropriate reaction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sabalenka has contested eight tournaments so far in 2025, and has reached the final in six of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 26-year-old is through to a third straight Mutua Madrid Open final \u2013 fourth overall \u2013 and is looking to join Petra Kvitova as the only women to claim a hat-trick in the Spanish capital.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just super excited every time I\u2019m coming here. I just love playing in this stadium, I enjoy the support, I enjoy the battles here and I\u2019m super happy to be in another final. Hopefully I can do a little bit better than last year,\u201d said Sabalenka, who lost to Iga Swiatek in last year\u2019s championship match.<\/span><\/p>\n

Standing in Sabalenka\u2019s way is a familiar foe, fourth-seeded Coco Gauff, who punched her ticket to a maiden Madrid final with a dominant 6-1, 6-1 result against Swiatek.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sabalenka is 5-0 against top-10 players so far this season but trails Gauff 4-5 in their head-to-head.<\/span><\/p>\n

The pair have shared the stage at some of the biggest tournaments in the world \u2013 like last year\u2019s WTA Finals and the 2023 US Open final \u2013 and Madrid will witness their 10th<\/sup>\u00a0showdown in five years.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of great battles against each other and very tough ones, very close ones. I\u2019ll just go out there and fight for every point. That\u2019s the best preparation to have against someone like Coco,\u201d said Sabalenka.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gauff\u2019s fortnight in Madrid started unceremoniously, getting bagelled by Dayana Yastremska in a late-night second round clash.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 21-year-old American hasn\u2019t dropped a set since, and carries a stunning 10-1 record in finals entering Saturday\u2019s duel with Sabalenka.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before her final opponent was determined, Gauff was already looking forward to a potential date with Sabalenka.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously Aryna is world No.1, so it would be cool to play her in the final and give myself that challenge,\u201d said Gauff.<\/p>\n

Victory on Saturday would lift Gauff to a career-high No.2 in the world, moving ahead of Swiatek and Jessica Pegula.<\/p>\n

While a top-two seeding at Roland Garros is an appealing prospect, Gauff admits her sights are set on one number, and one number only when it comes to the rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m going to be honest, it’s not important to me, honestly,\u201d said Gauff at the possibility of taking over the No.2 spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only number that would mean a lot to me is 1 at this point. Anything anywhere else is just a number.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously it’s a reward for the work that I’m doing and the consistency that I’m showing, but it’s not something that I think about or have a goal to reach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gauff is the second-youngest player to reach the Madrid final, older only than Caroline Wozniacki, who was the runner-up to Dinara Safina in 2009.<\/p>\n

No stranger to setting new records related to her age \u2013 given she broke through at 15 \u2013 Gauff thought all the \u201cyoungest\u201d stats were behind her now that she is over 21.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll ride it as long as I can,\u201d she joked.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, I’m just happy to be in the final of this tournament. I’ve been coming here, and I don’t think I’ve ever made it out of the fourth round, so just happy to improve and reach this stage.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Aryna Sabalenka was told that she had just booked herself a spot in the final for a fourth consecutive tournament with her win over Elina Svitolina on Thursday, the world No.1 was legitimately surprised. \u201cI wasn\u2019t even thinking about that. It sounds crazy,\u201d said Sabalenka when the interviewer told her she made finals in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":102599,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"mc4wp_mailchimp_campaign":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[875,999,843],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mutua-news-en","category-tennis-en","category-noticias-tenis-femenino-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102595"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102596,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102595\/revisions\/102596"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/desarrollo.mutuamadridopen.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}