Iga Swiatek continued her 2024 Madrid Open run with a brutal win over native player Sara Sorribes Tormo.
The Polish player made it to the Madrid Open final last year, so she’s quite familiar with the WTA 1000 event and knows what it takes to really make it far. She didn’t win the trophy last year, which only adds to her motivation this year, and she’s certainly backing it up on the courts so far.
In the fourth round, she faced native player Sorribes Tormo. The Spaniard is a solid player but struggles greatly against players like Swiatek. Her game is mostly about prolonging rallies and breaking up the rhythm, which involves various types of shots.
In theory, that sounds good on paper, but when she goes up against a brutal baseliner like Swiatek, it’s simply game over. Sorribes Tormo’s shots lack power, so for world no. 1, this match was more like practice, where she got a lot of slower, high-bouncing balls that she kept crushing.
Add a weaker serve of Sorribos Tormo into the mix; and a disastrous result can occur, and that’s exactly what happened in this match because the Spanish player was simply outplayed.
It’s a terrible matchup for her, and she was powerless for much of it. Funnily enough, she did start by breaking Swiatek in the first game as the Pole was finding her rhythm. Once she found it, she didn’t give her opponent any chances.
She won six games in a row to win the opening set 6-1. The second set didn’t offer anything new either, as the Polish player started by taking a 4-0 lead, winning the majority of points on Sorribes Tormo’s serve.
She finished the second set with a bagel, which means that she won 12 games in a row against Sorribes Tormo to finish the match, winning 6-1, 6-0 to set up a quarter-final match with Beatriz Haddad Maia.
