2025 Madrid Open WTA Draw With Sabalenka, Gauff, And Brutal Swiatek's Quarter

The draw for the first WTA 1000 tournament of the season on clay, the 2025 Madrid Open, has been revealed.

The WTA Tour shifted from hard to clay courts, and after a Grand Slam and four WTA 1000 tournaments on the hard courts, it's time for the first clay-court WTA 1000 event.

Last year, Iga Swiatek won the tournament in Madrid, and she also won the following WTA 1000 event in Rome as well as the French Open. The Pole completed the clay-court three-peat, and she will attempt to do that also this year.

But that task won't be easy at all. Swiatek will be coming to Madrid after a loss in Stuttgart, and the draw wasn't nice to her at all. Like all seeded players, she has a first-round bye, starting in the second round against the winner of the match between Viktoriya Tomova and Alexandra Eala.

Eala is a player who beat Swiatek at the Miami Open. Should she win that match, the Pole could play against Linda Noskova, who gave her plenty of trouble in the past. Even if Swiatek overcomes that hurdle, she could play against Jelena Ostapenko, who just beat her in Stuttgart.

On the opposite side of the draw, the top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka will be able to enjoy a much smoother sailing. She will start against one of the qualifiers, and in the third round, the Belarusian could play against Elise Mertens, whom she just bested in Stuttgart.

Despite her terrible form, Coco Gauff will be one of the favorites in Madrid. The American loves playing on the clay courts, but she will be tested early in the Spanish capital. Gauff will play against Dayana Yastremska or a qualifier.

Like at every WTA 1000 event, there will also be plenty of potential blockbusters. Naomi Osaka will start against Lucia Bronzetti in the first round, and if she wins that match, she will play against the fifth-seeded Madison Keys.

Bianca Andreescu will take on McCartney Kessler in the first round, with the winner taking on the tenth-seeded Elena Rybakina. Emma Raducanu will start against Suzan Lamens, and the better of the two will take on Marta Kostyuk.

The ninth-seeded Paula Badosa has struggled with an injury recently, but she should return to the tennis courts in her home country. Funnily enough, the Spaniard already knows the name of her second-round opponent. She will take on a player named Kudermetova, but she has yet to find out whether it will be Veronika or Polina.