The road to Roland Garros really begins in Madrid — Quotes from Stuttgart
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, April 22, 2025
Howdy, y’all and Happy Tennis Tuesday! The meaty section of the European red clay season begins this week with the start of the Mutua Madrid Open. Just in case for those newer to the game, this is the third year the tournament will cover two weeks, followed by another two-weeker in Rome. The tennis these next four weeks will unfortunately be very slow, so don’t say I didn’t warn you.
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That being said, Madrid is a first temperature gauge to see where all of the top players are as Madrid is a Premier Mandatory tournament. Last year, Iga Swiatek outlasted Aryna Sabalenka in a third-set tiebreaker to take the title and continue her clay court dominance.
The Caja Magica will be swimming in some mouth-watering matchups from the get-go. My go-to first round matches to watch are:
For me, the big storyline is if the top seeds will continue their dominance. The top four seeds are Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff. They’ve been dominating the tail-end of tournaments for over the past year and are all comfortable on clay. I’ve mentioned in earlier TTs that Madrid could be a big sign if Pegula will be able to overtake Swiatek’s No. 2 ranking by the time Roland Garros ends. Swiatek’s road in Madrid might not be tough at first glance, but she basically has someone that’s upset her or tested her tough (R2: Eala, R3: Noskova, R4: Ostapenko, QF: Keys, SF: Gauff, F: Sabalenka). She’s on a near year-long title drought and I would be surprised if she defends the title.
A few names that are more than comfortable on the clay that could do some damage include Paris Olympic gold medalist Zheng Qinwen and Mirra Andreeva, who had her initial breakthrough in 2023 and is a reigning Roland Garros semifinalist. Throw in veteran seeds coming back from injury like Paula Badosa and Ons Jabeur, or even some shocking unseeded standouts like Naomi Osaka, Victoria Azarenka, Belinda Bencic and Emma Raducanu. I’d also be a fool to not include both titlists from this past week — Jelena Ostapenko and Elina Svitolina. They were both extremely impressive in their Stuttgart and Rouen runs, respectively.
I will say, I do think there is a lot of potential for this tournament to provide some stellar matchups over the fortnight. Still, with any two-week tournament, I have to give my initial thoughts as to how it’ll pan out:
Round of 16
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (15) Amanda Anisimova
(8) Zheng Qinwen def. (24) Marta Kostyuk
(3) Jessica Pegula def. (14) Daria Kasatkina
(17) Elina Svitolina def. (6) Jasmine Paolini
(7) Mirra Andreeva def. (12) Karolina Muchova
(4) Coco Gauff def. Belinda Bencic
(5) Madison Keys def. (11) Emma Navarro
(2) Iga Swiatek def. (13) Diana Shnaider
Quarterfinals
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (8) Zheng Qinwen
(3) Jessica Pegula def. (17) Elina Svitolina
(4) Coco Gauff def. (7) Mirra Andreeva
(2) Iga Swiatek def. (5) Madison Keys
Semi-Finals
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (3) Jessica Pegula
(2) Iga Swiatek def. (4) Coco Gauff
Final
(1) Aryna Sabalenka def. (2) Iga Swiatek
Honestly, don’t expect this to pan out this way. It’s a little too straight-forward/safe, but that’s where my gut leans. A few earlier matchups that could thwart this include third-rounders between Shnaider and Ostapenko, Donna Vekic and Navarro, Svitolina and Elena Rybakina and Kostyuk against Paula Badosa. Many of the fourth rounders could go the either way too, so the second week could be a really, really juicy one.
Until then, on to links!
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This Week in Women’s Tennis
Jelena Ostapenko was able to back up her flawless record over Iga Swiatek by knocking out Aryna Sabalenka to win the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. A confident, free Ostapenko is quite a scary one, who won Stuttgart by defeating the Top 2 players. The doubles title was won by Erin Routliffe and Gaby Dabrowski, who hadn’t played on the surface together until now. They defeated Ekaterina Alexandrova and Zhang Shuai to win their first title of the year.
Aryna Sabalenka took her fourth Stuttgart final loss in stride, though:
In Rouen, France, Elina Svitolina won the 18th WTA singles title of her career, taking out Olga Danilovic for her first title in nearly two years. Sabrina Santamaria and Aleksandra Krunic won the doubles crown, upsetting top seeds Irina Khromacheva and Linda Noskova in straight sets.
At the WTA 125 tournament in Oeiras, Portugal, Dalma Galfi won the biggest title of her career, defeating Katie Volynets to finally win a WTA 125 final on her third try. Francisca and Matilde Jorge defended their title from last year to the home crowd delight, downing Anastasia Detiuc and Patricia Maria Tig.
Lesia Tsurenko, who hasn’t played since November, has filed a lawsuit against the WTA due to the tour’s handling of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Sara Sorribes Tormo shared that she will be taking an indefinite break from tennis for her mental health and shared she’s unsure if she’ll ever come back:
Serena Williams, who was named one of TIME’s Most Influential People, was announced as an Executive Producer on a Netflix scripted tennis series Carrie Soto is Back.
Conference tournaments are wrapping up this week, so get ready for NCAA Tournament goodies next week. In the mean time, here’s a nice profile on Jamea Jackson as the former Top 50 player is finishing up her first year at Arizona State’s while being amongst the lone Black female head coaches in the sport.
Mirra Andreeva lost to her older sister in their only previous WTA matchup and tied it up via an unfortunate retirement in the Stuttgart first round. She still gave big sis her flowers, though.
If you’re ever curious how the top players handle travel fatigue and jet lag, look no further.
You know I play on the Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance (GLTA) World Tour and I was today years old when I found out Madrid has quite the queer tennis scene with the best name ever — Lesbian Garros.
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Tweet of the Week
Lois Boisson turned lemons into quite the glass of lemonade after Harriet Dart was overheard telling the umpire the Frenchwoman needed deodorant. Props to Dove for inserting their name in the petty. I approve.
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Five at The IX: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix
Q. You talked about the search for perfection on the court. I remember Agassi wrote that in his book, that he was also looking to be perfect but it wasn’t good for him because it doesn’t exist. Is it something you work on, not to look for that, or is it good for you to look for that?
JELENA OSTAPENKO: I think it’s not good to look for that, because nobody is ever perfect, so to set such a high standard, it’s sometimes working against you.
Q. Can I ask about Grand Slams? You have won Australia. You have won U.S. What do you think would be the more difficult of the other two? Is Roland Garros more difficult for you or Wimbledon?
ARYNA SABALENKA: I mean, how can we compare these two completely different surfaces? But both of them are pretty tough to win. But probably physically will be tougher — mentally/physically will be tougher, Roland Garros. But that’s my goal, and I’m working really hard and hopefully I can achieve that goal.
Q. At the beginning of Miami you opened up a little bit on Instagram on what was going on behind the scenes with some struggles. As you have always been someone who has never been shy about talking about the mental part of the game, I wonder if that brought you to a different kind of preparation for the clay season, prioritizing more the mental part. Was it the same from the previous seasons?
IGA SWIATEK: No, I think preparation obviously worked previous years, so it has been similar. The only difference is I had more time to play on clay this year.
For sure my goal is to, like, focus on myself. Yeah, it hasn’t been easy for past months because after having such great seasons, I’ve been on a spotlight and my every move is kind of judged, the expectations are high.
But yeah, my goal is to focus on myself and focus on the process, on what I want to change on the court. For sure, with Wim we have many ideas of how I can improve my technique. On practice court, it has been looking pretty well, so I want to implement that on matches.
I try to keep myself busy with these things. I’m pretty sure if I am going to work hard, the results also are going to come after that.
People also, I don’t know, they will say whatever they want to say. You sometimes need to ignore that.
So yeah, we’ll see.
Q. I wonder, when you stepped onto the court, the stadium was completely packed. There was the music introduction with lights and everything and the crowd. Obviously they were probably cheering more for your opponent because she’s the local player, but did you also got the feeling of something or you were already in your bubble with the headphones and stuff?
COCO GAUFF: Yeah, no, I definitely noticed the crowd size. I think this is my third or fourth time playing the tournament. I definitely think this is the most packed it’s been at least on my first match, which I thought it was just because of her (smiling).
But it’s cool to know that a lot of people here in Stuttgart are supporting women’s tennis. I feel like the tournament has grown every year since I have played.
I think they do a great job player-wise, providing for the players and making sure that we’re well-accommodated. Obviously I have never experienced the fan experience, but obviously they must be doing well on that end too if people are deciding to come back and maybe inviting some more friends to play.
Yeah, it’s great, and that’s actually cool that a women’s event is selling out, which I shouldn’t be surprised, because we do have a strong competition. I think this is probably the hardest 500 on tour, for sure.
Q. You made a breakthrough in the WTA Tour. After this period of time, you are one of the best players in the world. You are at an age when your development is really good. Looking from your perspective, which factors helped you to develop so rapidly during those last two years?
MIRRA ANDREEVA: I think that because when I play the match, when I play the tournament, I just try to go on court and do enjoy every moment, to kind of have fun, but at the same time take it seriously.
I think that lately I found that balance to not really be depressed or to worry too much on the court, but also sometimes take it easy and let it go.
I think me finding that balance helped me a lot these couple of months.
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| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
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