Sabalenka beats Barty in Madrid
Reversal of fortune for Belarusian after loss in Stuttgart Open final
Aryna Sabalenka was in ominous form as she overpowered world number one Ash Barty 60 3-6 6-4 to win the Madrid Open on Saturday.
In claiming victory, the Belarusian gained revenge after being beaten by the Australian in the Stuttgart Open final a fortnight ago.
On a windy day on the clay in Madrid, Sabalenka’s first-set shotmaking was nothing short of sensational as she combined her trademark big hits from the baseline with deft drop shots to leave the Australian reeling, serving it out inside 25 minutes.
The world number seven had not dropped a set coming into the final and, after threatening to run away with the title, her momentum was finally broken by Barty in the first game of the second set.
Barty failed to hold on to that advantage but showed her depth of talent to break again and send the match into a decider.
Both players held serve until Sabalenka broke Barty to love to go 5-4 up before serving out to secure the win.
“I’m not really scared of this surface any more,” Sabalenka declared afterwards.
“Before I was thinking too much about the clay court, that this surface is not for me, that it’s really tough to play on this surface ... its long rallies. I was really thinking too much about this.
“This year I relaxed and just played my game. I worked a lot on the movement, so I prepared myself really well for the clay court.”
The key to Sabalenka’s new approach to clay has been to avoid adapting her game.
“Before, on the clay court I tried to change my game a little bit,” she said.
“I tried to play with the topspin, slice, all this stuff. [My coach] said: ‘Listen, you don’t need to change your game. Of course, it’s good that you can use a little bit more spin on the ball, have this variation. You just have to stay aggressive here and be ready that the ball will come back a little bit more than on a hard court. It’s just about a little bit longer rallies’.”
The result was the first bagel set Barty had received in four years, and just the eighth of her entire professional career.
“She takes the ball out of my court and essentially takes the racquet out of my hand when she serves the way she did in the first set,” Barty said.
“I gave her a few too many looks on second serves. She’s able to dominate and take that away from me. I guarantee it won’t be the last time that it happens. I’ll continue to fight and try to find a way back in each and every time.”
To do that, Barty had to wipe the slate clean.
“It’s tough to take too many good things out of it,” she said of the whitewash set.
“You just reset and start again. That was important for me to try to do. I think I just needed to try a few different things. I shifted my court position around more than anything to try to give her a little bit of a different look, try to break some rhythm, some momentum. I was able to do that.”