MADRID \u2013 World No. 4 Iga Swiatek made a strong start to her Madrid Open campaign on April 23 by crushing Ukraine\u2019s Daria Snigur 6-1, 6-2, in a second-round match that lasted just over an hour.<\/p>\n
The Polish star had little difficulty in the first set, before confidently storming towards the end with six straight games to close out the clash in 1hr 1min.<\/p>\n
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka, the defending champion, encountered more resistance from American Peyton Stearns but advanced with a 7-5, 6-3 win in 1hr 35min.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swiatek is playing in Madrid hoping to improve on her quarter-final defeat at the Stuttgart Open last week.<\/p>\n
The 24-year-old lost to Russia\u2019s Mirra Andreeva in their first meeting on clay, a surface which arguably is her favourite and therefore she will seek to get up to speed before the French Open begins in May.<\/p>\n
The four-time Roland Garros champion claimed the title three years in a row from 2022 to 2024, but lost in the semi-finals last season to Sabalenka.<\/p>\n
Whatever happens in Paris, Swiatek knows that for now the focus is on doing well in the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n
In a light-hearted on-court interview after her win, she was asked to speak some Spanish to the crowd as she reportedly learnt the language in high school.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I should\u2019ve learnt more. But hola, como estas Madrid?\u201d Swiatek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week I was trying to speak Spanish… for example ordering some food in Spanish, and the people in the restaurant started speaking Spanish to me, and I\u2019m like \u2018OK, that\u2019s all I know\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I tried to get better, I have a Spanish coach right now, so hopefully, it will help.\u201d<\/p>\n
So dominant was her performance that she was not immediately asked about how she felt she had played, as it was clear to see that if Swiatek maintains her form, she will likely go far in Madrid.<\/p>\n
\u201cMadrid is a special place to play because of how special the tournament is but also because of the conditions. I am happy I was able to adapt to them and just played my game,\u201d she added, as quoted by the Tennishead website.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to be solid and not rush decisions because it\u2019s easy to lose control, so I stayed patient and solid and picked the right balls.\u201d<\/p>\n
Off the court, Portia Archer has stepped down from her role as chief executive officer of the Women\u2019s Tennis Association (WTA), less than two years after being appointed, the governing body said on April 22.<\/p>\n
WTA chair Valerie Camillo informed staff, members and other stakeholders of Archer\u2019s departure in a note which the organisation shared with Reuters.<\/p>\n
The letter did not specify a reason for Archer\u2019s departure but said she had left her role effective April 20 ahead of her contract renewal.<\/p>\n
The American had replaced Steve Simon, who relinquished his role as CEO in 2024. Simon remained as executive chairman of the organisation until Camillo was appointed in October 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working through a transition plan for the leadership of the WTA and will share an update on this by mid-May,\u201d Camillo wrote in the note.<\/p>\n
Archer, previously a senior executive at the National Basketball Association, took charge as WTA CEO in July 2024 and led day-to-day business strategy and operations, helping it expand into new markets. REUTERS, AFP<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID \u2013 World No. 4 Iga Swiatek made a strong start to her Madrid Open campaign on April…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-546859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}