Sabalenka reigns in Spain for third time in Madrid Open tennis

Aryna Sabalenka is now the 'queen' of Madrid. The Belarusian tennis player beat American Coco Gauff in the final 6-3, 7-6 (3) and won her third crown in the Spanish capital. The world number one and main favourite for the title fulfilled expectations and won again, as she did in 2022 and 2023, equalling Petra Kvitova's record of three titles, the most successful on these courts in the women's category. Only Rafa Nadal, with five titles between the former hard-court tournament and the Caja Mágica clay-court tournament, is ahead of her in the tournament's honours list.

It was not a brilliant final, but it was very exciting, especially from the second set onwards. Gauff, who'd had a terrible first set, especially on serve, settled down and began to damage Sabalenka's game, who began to fade with unforced errors.

The Belarusian had been close to perfection in the first set, punishing Gauff's second serves with missile after missile. As soon as Gauff realised that she could not let Sabalenka take the win and the Belarusian began to play with less risk, the match evened out and the American enjoyed a 3-1 lead and a 5-3 lead in the second set.

At 5-4 and on serve, the American had a break point that she did not take advantage of, that was key in the long run. From 5-3 it was 5-6 and this time it was Sabalenka who had match point. It was a duel of ups and downs, of comings and goings and, above all, of high stress, which is why the Minsk player's return on that championship ball went two metres beyond the baseline.

She had given new life to Gauff, who came into the tiebreak worse than her opponent. Sabalenka was up 3-0, but with two errors, the American took the lead. It was the tone of the whole match, there was no consistency. Until the favourite said enough. Sabalenka no longer gave a single point more from 3-3 and with a double fault of Gauff certified her third title at the Manolo Santana. "It's always a pleasure to play here," said the world number one. With this title, coupled with three-time champion Iga Swiatek's bad phase, may be the main favourite for the title in Roland Garros in Paris.

Spain's Marcel Granollers and Argentina's Horacio Zeballos won their second Madrid Masters 1000 title on Saturday by defeating El Salvador's Marcelo Arevalo and Croatia's Mate Pavic 6-4, 6-4 in the final.

The final, much easier than expected, was resolved thanks to a first set in which the Spanish-Argentine pairing took advantage of the only break they had and in the second they overcame a 0-3 deficit to close it out with no trouble. Granollers and Zeballos, who already won this title in 2021, beat the world number ones and last year's Roland Garros champions. They have moved up three places in the rankings, becoming the seventh best pairing in the world and making themselves one of the favourites for the next Roland Garros.

The Paris Grand Slam title is the main objective for Granollers and Zeballos, who have lost three finals and know what it is like to be number one, having reached it at Caja Mágica last year.