Big Girls and Boys advance at Madrid Open as Osaka falls
World number one Iga Swiatek beat Wang Xiyu 6-1, 6-4 to reach the third round of the Madrid Open on Thursday as she bids to win the competition for the first time.
Earlier Coco Gauff sailed through to the third round with a 6-0, 6-0 thumping of Arantxa Rus, while Liudmila Samsonova ousted Naomi Osaka in three sets.
Runner-up last year, Swiatek bounced back from her semi-final defeat by Elena Rybakina in Stuttgart with a largely comfortable straight-sets victory.
The Pole, a four-time Grand Slam winner and an expert on clay, wobbled in the second set as Wang won three games in a row but recovered to triumph in one hour 16 minutes.
"I love this place -- I got to know the city a little better last year," Swiatek said. "So this time I feel more comfortable around."
Madrid is the only major European clay tournament that three-time French Open champion Swiatek has yet to win.
Swiatek coasted through the first set, breaking twice for a 4-0 lead. She wrapped up it up with another break, leaving Wang no chance of reaching her red-hot backhand return.
The Doha and Indian Wells winner took a 4-1 lead in the second set but Wang fought her way back in for 4-4, before the top seed steeled herself to hold.
Wang then handed the second set on a plate to Swiatek with two double faults, and the Pole will face 27th seed Sorana Cirstea in the third round.
Earlier Gauff, 20, earned the first 'double bagel' victory of her career in a WTA Tour main draw event in only 51 minutes against her 33-year-old Dutch opponent Rus.
The American saved four break points in the match to become the third player ever to win 6-0, 6-0 in the Madrid Open main draw.
World number three Gauff will face Ukraine's Dayana Yastremska next.
Samsonova brought former world number one Osaka's return to clay to a halt with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory.
Four-time Grand Slam champion Osaka twice battled back from a breakdown in the second set to force a decisive third but world number 17 Samsonova eventually ground out the win.
Japanese star Osaka returned to tennis in January after a long break and earned her first victory on clay for two years on Wednesday against Greet Minnen.
However Russian 15th seed Samsonova, whom Osaka beat at Indian Wells in March, was able to end a four-match losing streak with her victory in two hours 22 minutes in the Spanish capital.
Hard-court expert Osaka, 26, is not overly fond of the red dirt and has not won back-to-back matches on the surface since 2019.
She lost last week at the Rouen Open in France against Martina Trevisan in her first match back on clay but improved this week.
"I felt -- I don't want to say happy -- I felt good that I was able to fight back," said Osaka. "I think it's a big difference from my match in France, so I was happy that I learned from that match, but sad that I lost."
Samsonova raced into a 4-0 first-set lead, breaking in the first and third games as Osaka struggled.
"Honestly, it's not the sliding part for me, it's the touch," said Osaka.
"I feel like I'm getting the balls, I'm just not placing them well."
Rafael Nadal breezed to a straight sets victory over 16-year-old Darwin Blanch to reach the second round as he began his farewell appearance in the Spanish capital.
The 37-year-old said this week he was not fully fit but demolished his American opponent 6-1, 6-0 in one hour and three minutes as he continues his comeback from injury.
Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, is expecting 2024 to be his final season in tennis and this is his last appearance at the Madrid Open.
He made his first competitive appearance since January at the Barcelona Open last week, where he was defeated in the second round by Alex de Minaur.
The Australian will be Nadal's second-round opponent in Madrid too as the Spaniard tries to find form and fitness ahead of Rome and then the French Open, where he is the record 14-time winner.
"For me, it has always been a pleasure to play in front of you all," said Nadal. "The support I've received here since the first time I played is hard to compare to anywhere else, so I can only say thank you."
Despite the ease of his victory, Nadal said it did not mean anything in terms of his prospects of competing at his beloved Roland Garros.
"I'm not a results-based guy, I'm a realist about what happens, I was playing against a player with good potential but who makes huge amounts of errors," Nadal told reporters. "It doesn't change my perspective on Paris and it will not change here, I'll decide between Rome."
