Ash Barty reached the quarter-finals in Madrid after beating Iga Swiatek 7-5 6-4.
In the battle of the Roland Garros champions, Barty showed more composure and was more solid in her overall game as she beat Swiatek to book her place in the last eight.
She will now face Petra Kvitova in the last eight, who beat Veronika Kudermetova 6-3 4-6 6-4.
It was Swiatek who made the brighter start in the match as she used her explosive power and heavy shots to cause the world number one problems especially on the Australian’s serve.
A dream start for the Pole as she caught Barty cold and took a 3-0 advantage at the beginning of the match.
However back came Barty, who was on a 13 match winning streak on the red clay coming into this match, as she managed to dictate points on more occasions with her backhand slice.
There was more caution from the 19 year-old as she now lost her break advantage as the set was now level at 3-3.
Swiatek showed some great mental strength and guts after that as she managed to come out of a couple of tough holds while the Australian was holding serve in relatively quick fashion.
The crucial moment came in the eleventh game as a tight set was given away by the 14th seed as three double faults contributed in the crucial break for Barty.
It was the 2019 Roland Garros champion who sealed the opening set in 55 minutes as Swiatek reflected on where it went wrong.
That break was more then just a break it turned out to be a momentum shift as Barty had figured out tactically how to break down the 19 year-old.
A fortunate net cord dealt the crucial blow as the world number one had a firm grip of the match as she broke for a 2-1 lead.
There was too much thinking going into Swiatek’s patterns of play as she couldn’t make the rallies short in too many instances.
As the second set prolonged, the higher the quality of tennis was as it was evident why these were the last two Roland Garros champions.
There was more controlled aggression from Swiatek to set up three break points but once again Barty’s clutch serving and overall play saved her as she struck a crucial hold for 4-2.
Even though the Pole started to construct some tidy points towards the end of the match, it wasn’t enough as Barty sealed her place in the quarter-finals.
An impressive performance from Barty that shows how much more developed her game is compared to Swiatek’s at the moment.
The world number one will meet Petra Kvitova in the quarter-finals next.
