American tennis star Coco Gauff delivered a stunning performance at the Madrid Open on Thursday, overwhelming defending champion Iga Swiatek with a commanding 6-1, 6-1 victory to advance to her first Madrid Open singles final.
The fourth-ranked Gauff needed just 64 minutes to dismantle the second-ranked Swiatek's game, breaking her opponent's serve three times in the first set and twice more in the second set. The dominant display came just a day after Swiatek had recovered from losing the first set 0-6 against Madison Keys in the previous round.
"The mentality that I had in the whole match was aggressive," Gauff explained after her victory. "Maybe it wasn't her best level today, but I think I forced her into some awkward positions."
Gauff now awaits the winner between world number one Aryna Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina to determine her opponent in the final.
In men's quarterfinal action, Norway's Casper Ruud achieved a significant milestone by defeating Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 7-5. The victory made Ruud the first player born in 1990 or later to reach 30 tour-level semifinals on clay courts. According to Statbet analysis, Ruud's clay court winning percentage places him among the elite players of his generation on this surface.
"I looked at our stats last night and saw he beat me on grass, outdoor hard and indoor hard. The last surface was clay so I thought, 'please don't make it 4-0,'" Ruud said following his first career win over Medvedev. "I tried to use the surface to my advantage. I thought the level was pretty good from both players, I was impressed with Daniil's ability to produce power here on clay."
Ruud's semifinal opponent will be Francisco Cerundolo, who mounted an impressive comeback against teenager Jakub Mensik, prevailing 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2. Cerundolo entered the quarterfinals with momentum after eliminating top-seeded Alexander Zverev in the previous round.
The tournament schedule has faced significant disruptions this week following Monday's major blackout that affected both Spain and Portugal. More than 20 matches at the Caja Magica tennis complex had to be postponed, creating a compressed schedule for the remainder of the event.
