Iga Swiatek defeats Beatriz Haddad Maia, reaches Madrid semifinals in three sets

Iga Swiatek pulled off an incredible escape at the 2024 Mutua Madrid Open, rallying from a set down to defeat Beatriz Haddad Maia, 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 and reach the semifinals.

In a rematch of a 2023 Roland Garros semifinal, the world No. 1 shook off an opening-set blip to resume her decimation of the field, escaping the eleventh-seeded Haddad Maia to reach her 15th WTA 1000 semifinal—the most among active players since 2020—in two hours and 29 minutes on Manolo Santana Stadium.

"I needed to for sure stick to the tactics, because in the first set I started making too many mistakes," Swiatek explained in press. "I started playing too fast.

"I just needed to really get back to basics and what I wanted to play today. It took me a while, longer than usual, but I'm glad that it happened after the set anyway."

Swiatek had enjoyed a dominant start to her Madrid campaign, having finished runner-up to Aryna Sabalenka at the Caja Magica last year. Dropping just eight games through her first three matches, the top seed appeared in a strong position against Haddad Maia, whom she’d beaten in their last two meetings. Still, Swiatek predicted a tricky match in her press conference on Monday.

"The biggest thing I remember is it was really tight in the first set," she said presciently. "The tiebreaker was stressful. I remember the crowd also being crazy, because the Brazilian crowd is, like, taking all these instruments with them and making small music festival on the audience. So it was for sure different experience, a good one but tough to handle."

Though Haddad Maia’s earlier results hadn’t been as emphatic, the Brazilian was no less decisive in her wins over No. 19 seed Emma Navarro and No. 5 seed Maria Sakkari, defeating both in straight sets to book the quarterfinal clash with Swiatek.

Swiatek nonetheless looked poised for another blowout as the match got underway; the three-time Roland Garros champ broke Haddad Maia to love in the fourth game and saved a break point to consolidate a 4-1 advantage.

Haddad Maia dug in from there, reeling off the next five games as Swiatek found herself increasingly off-balance, striking 13 unforced errors to find herself a set down.

The second set began much like the first: Swiatek took control of proceedings and cleaned up her ground game—striking only five errors—to end the run of games against her and one-up Haddad Maia with a devastating eight-game streak, bageling the Brazilian and moving up an early break in the third.

Haddad Maia seemingly got back on the board in a big way, breaking straight back and letting out a roar for stopping the eight-game streak, but Swiatek was unfazed, outrallying and outvolleying Haddad Maia to restore her lead in the very next game.

Swiatek continued to pressure Haddad Maia as she closed in on victory, blasting a forehand putaway to engineer a match point as Haddad Maia served to stay in the match. Outrallying her opposition one last time, Swiatek stormed over the finish line to book a final-four encounter against either Madison Keys or 2022 Madrid champion Ons Jabeur.