Defending champion Aryna Sabalenka continued her solid 2024 Madrid Open campaign with another hard-fought win.
The Belarusian produced a stunning effort on the courts in Madrid last year to win the trophy. It was her first WTA 1000 clay trophy, and it was comfortably sealed in style by outplaying clay specialist Iga Swiatek in the final.
This year has been all over the place for Sabalenka. It started on a high note with the Australian Open triumph, but she couldn't follow up on that triumph with another title run.
Last week in Stuttgart didn't go all too well, but she's back to winning ways in Madrid. The Belarusian had to fight for her first win, and the fight continued in the match against Robin Montgomery.
The opening set was an easy cruise for Sabalenka, who finished it 6-1 after 41 minutes of play, and it seemed that she would be able to win the match in straight sets.
Both played a decent first set, but Sabalenka's power was just too overwhelming. Better players than Montgomery had that problem, and it's a really big problem, especially when the ball flies as fast as it does in the Spanish capital.
The second set was a bit more competitive, but at 3-3, Sabalenka finally put a lot of pressure on her opponent, creating a chance. She couldn't convert it, so the match continued. The Belarusian would ultimately fail to find a breakthrough, so the set ended up in a tie-break.
It wasn't a good one for Sabalenka as she was behind for most of it and ultimately lost it 5-7, and the match had to be decided in the third set,
The final set was pretty straightforward as both held their serve easily. At 5-4, Sabalenka found match points and converted one of them to win the match. The final score was 6-1, 6-7(5), 6-4 for the second seed. Up next, she will play against Danielle Collins, who is on a 15-match unbeaten run.
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