Visibly rattled, Swiatek lost her composure and was even hit with rare code violation for an audible obscenity
\n Madrid
\nCoco Gauff dismantled defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-1 on Thursday with a ruthless display to storm into her first Madrid Open final, where she will face world number one Aryna Sabalenka for the Women\u2019s Tennis Association (WTA) 1000 title.
\nGauff and Swiatek had met 14 times, with the head-to-head heavily in four-time French Open winner Swiatek\u2019s favour at 11 wins to 3, while the American had never beaten the Pole on clay.
\nSwiatek\u2019s frustration mounted as Gauff stormed back from 0\u20131 to win 11 straight games and 12 of the last 13. Visibly rattled, the top seed lost her composure and was even hit with a rare code violation for an audible obscenity.
\n\u201cHonestly, there\u2019s nothing to walk through because it was all pretty much the same from the beginning to the end,\u201d world number two Swiatek told reporters.
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t really get my level up. Coco played good, but, yeah, I think it\u2019s on me that I didn\u2019t really move well, I wasn\u2019t ready to play back the shots with heaviness, and with that kind of game like it was pretty bad.\u201d
\nTwo-time champion Sabalenka claimed a straight-sets victory over Ukraine\u2019s Elina Svitolina 6-3 7-5 to reach her third consecutive final in Madrid.
\nThe Belarusian delivered a dominant performance and appeared to be cruising to victory after breaking early in the second set and serving for a 5-4 lead.
\nYet 17th seed Svitolina broke back in what seemed a momentum shift, before Sabalenka responded immediately, breaking again to seal the win in just over 90 minutes.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s hard to beat Svitolina, it was a very tough battle,\u201d said the 26-year-old as she reached her fifth final of the year.
\n\u201cBut I\u2019m very happy to reach the final. (Svitolina) makes you fight every point, to beat her you have to play your best tennis. And winning it gives you great confidence and means you\u2019re in good shape.\u201d
\nDraper to face Musetti in semis
\nEarlier in the day, Briton fifth seed Jack Draper booked his place in the semi-finals with a commanding 6-0 6-4 win over Italy\u2019s Matteo Arnaldi, setting up a clash with 10th seed Lorenzo Musetti, who eased past Canada\u2019s Gabriel Diallo 6-4 6-3.
\nArgentine Francisco Cerundolo also progressed, rallying from a set down to beat Czech teenager Jakub Mensik 3-6 7-6(5) 6-2 and will face Casper Ruud, who stunned ninth seed Daniil Medvedev 6-3 7-5, for a place in the final.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Visibly rattled, Swiatek lost her composure and was even hit with rare code violation for an audible obscenity Madrid Coco Gauff dismantled defending champion Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-1 on Thursday with a ruthless display to storm into her first Madrid Open final, where she will face world number one Aryna Sabalenka for the Women\u2019s Tennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":476150,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-476137","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n