MADRID – Coco Gouf overwhelmed defending champion Iga Swieitok 6-1, 6-1 to reach the Madrid Open Singles Final on Thursday.
Gouf cruised three and two Swietech serves in the first set in the 64th minute semi-final against second-placed Swieight in the Clay Court Tournament.
Gouf faces top-ranked Arena Sabalenka and beat Erina Svitrina 6-3, 7-5 to reach the Madrid final for the fourth time in her career.
It was Gov’s first victory over the clay Swiecsk.
“The mentality I had throughout the game was offensive,” said fourth-placed Gauff. “Maybe it wasn’t her best level, but I think I pushed her into some nasty positions.”
Swiatek recovered from losing his first set of 0-6 to the Madison Keys on Wednesday.
“I really couldn’t get myself to level up,” said the four-time French Open Champion. “Coco played well, but I think it’s for me that it really didn’t work. I wasn’t ready to play the shots in heavy stuff and games like that. It was pretty bad.”
The last time Swiatek has only won two games in the match was a 6-0, 6-2 defeat to Birmingham’s Jelena Ostapenko in 2019.
“For me,” added Gouf.
Sabalenka returned to the final after completing an unbeaten run at Svitolina’s unbeaten clay this year. She was 9-0 in 2025, but she didn’t lose the set.
Sabalenka won the titles in Madrid in 2021 and 2023, and complied with Swiatek last year.
Golf was 5-4 against Sabalenka and won the only previous meeting at Clay in Rome in 2021.
Beating Svitolina, Sabalenka became the first player to get a 30 main draw victory in the WTA event in 2025.
In the men’s quarterfinals, Casperude advanced by beating Danil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5 to become the first player born since 1990 to reach the semi-finals of 30 tour level at Clay.
The No. 15th Norwegian was 0-3 against Medvedev in his career.
“I looked at our statistics last night and saw him beat me with grass. It’s hard outdoors and indoors. The final surface was clay so I thought, ‘Don’t make it 4-0’,” Roode said. “I tried to use the surface for my advantage. I thought the levels were pretty good from both players, so I was impressed with Danil’s ability to create power with clay here.”
Ladd will then face Francisco Serundo, who rallied to defeat teenager Jakub Mensik.
Cerundolo had beaten top seed Alexander Zverev in the previous round.
In another quarterfinal, fifth-placed Jack Draper defeated Matteo Arnald 6-0, 6-4. Arnardo defeated Novak Djokovic in the second round. Draper is in the top five in the rankings for the first time thanks to his running in Madrid. He faces 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who defeated Gabriel Diallo 6-4, 6-3.
