CNN
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World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka won a record-equaling Madrid Open title on Saturday, defeating the USA’s Coco Gauff 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the final.
With the win, Sabalenka equaled Petra Kvitova’s record three titles in Madrid, and secured her 20th career title. It also further consolidated her spot as world No. 1, following a dominant start to the year in which she has reached four consecutive finals, and won a tour-leading 31 matches.
Meanwhile, Gauff, who could have leapfrogged over Iga Świątek to take the world No. 2 spot with a win, remains the No. 3 seed in the rankings.
“It’s always incredible to come back to Madrid, I love this place, I’m always excited to play in front of you all,” Sabalenka said in her on-court interview afterward, thanking the crowd for its support.
She enjoyed a near-perfect start to the match, her powerful ground strokes overpowering Gauff as she won 17 consecutive points early on to take an ultimately unassailable first-set lead.
Though Gauff settled into the match, she could not recover that deficit and was left to launch her challenge in the second set. A perfectly executed passing shot ensured that Gauff broke Sabalenka early in the second and she eventually served for the set at 5-4 to level the match.
Sabalenka raced to a 0-40 lead but Gauff clung on, saved one break point and on the next, the racquet slipped out of Sabalenka’s hands as she scampered around the court.
That gave Gauff an opening and she took it, engineering a set point but Sabalenka once again snuffed out any chance, and later broke back. Ultimately, despite Gauff’s best efforts, the set went to a tiebreak which Sabalenka won, wrapping up the match.