Published: April 26, 2026 at 12:43 pm
There was a gap of eight years between the first and second clash between Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka but now it’s just seven weeks before they head to clash 3 on the WTA Tour. Four-time Grand Slam singles champion Osaka and World No. 1 Sabalenka will have their first meeting away from hard courts in the Round of 16 of the Mutua Madrid Open after both scored easy third-round wins on Saturday.
Sabalenka booked her spot in the fourth round first with a 6-1, 6-4 win over No. 28 seed Jaqueline Cristian, and Osaka followed suit with a 6-1, 6-3 win over former World No. 25 Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine.
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Sabalenka, a three-time champion in Madrid, looks to reach the quarterfinals or better in the Spanish capital for the fifth time in eight trips to the tournament while Osaka seeks to reach the last eight at the event for the first time since 2019.
It’s always a great battle: Sabalenka
“All of the matches we played … it’s only two of them, it (has) always been a great battle, great level of tennis, so I feel like it doesn’t matter which surface we’re going to play,” Sabalenka said, expressing her excitement at the prospect of facing Osaka again after running her season-best winning streak to 14 straight matches.
Osaka needed to find a higher level in the second set of her 6-2, 7-5 second-round win against Camila Osorio, and was forced to do the same against former World No. 25 Kalinina in 1 hour and 16 minutes. She stormed out of the gates against the Ukrainian, and built a 6-1, 4-1 lead in under an hour. But Kalinina won back-to-back games to creep closer in the second set, before an emphatic love hold put Osaka on the doorstep of back-to-back wins.
Naomi Osaka seeks to reach the last eight of the Madrid Open for the first time since 2019. Pics: WTA Tour
A nine-deuce game on Kalinina’s serve ended the match, as Osaka sealed victory on her fourth match point after Kalinina had six game points of her own to hold serve.
Sabalenka had also faced Cristian a round prior to facing Osaka in Indian Wells, a match she won 6-4, 6-1. The set scores were reversed in their clay-court meeting, but there were similar themes in the top seed’s latest win, a victory that improved her win-loss record this year to 25-1.
After the top seed rolled through the opener, Cristian played her close in the first games of the second set. Crucially, Sabalenka saved four break points in the sixth game of the set, which would’ve seen Cristian lead 4-2, and won the last three games of the match.
The winner will face either No. 11 seed Belinda Bencic or No. 30 seed Hailey Baptiste in the quarterfinals.
Andreeva cruises on
Mirra Andreeva may be a Roland Garros semifinalist, a reliable fixture in the second week of the Mutua Madrid Open and a two-time WTA titlist on clay, but she still has a “love-hate relationship” with the surface, as she revealed after defeating qualifier Dalma Galfi 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday.
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“I don’t mind clay, but I was just complaining to (Diana Shnaider) on the court that she said ‘you’re whole tank top is dirty,’ Andreeva said to press after her singles and doubles win, partnered with Shnaider. “I just don’t have enough clothes with me to, every time, give it to laundry. Tonight, I have a washing day because I have two tank tops left, and I need to catch up a little bit. I don’t mind playing on clay, it’s one of my favorite surfaces, but that’s the downside of that,” she added.
Mirra Andreeva enters last 6 of the Madrid Open for the fourth straight year. Pic: US Open
Andreeva’s defeat of Galfi put her into the Madrid last 16 for a fourth straight year, and extended her clay record in 2026 to 9-1. Though the contest wasn’t as straightforward as the scoreline suggests, she needed to come from an early break down in both sets, and all but one game of the second set went to deuce, it showed off the teenager’s natural affinity for clay-court tennis.
In the first set, Andreeva’s comeback from 2-0 down was anchored by superb serving, she conceded just two further points behind her delivery as she swept through six of the next seven games. The second set was a tussle all the way, though, featuring a number of brilliant all-court exchanges in which both players sought to out-manoeuvre each other.
Ann Li moves on as Swaitek falls sick
It’s a second career top 10 win for Ann Li but the ending was not the way she envisioned. The American upset World No. 4 Iga Swiatek 7-6 (4), 2-6, 3-0 retired to earn her second top 10 win in 12 tries, and the highest ranked win in her career.
After Swiatek took a medical timeout down 0-2 in the third set, Li then held serve at love, and Swiatek retired officially with a gastrointestinal illness a few points into the fourth game.
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“The past two days were pretty terrible, I think I have some virus,” Swiatek said. “It’s been some hours fine, some hours pretty bad. I had zero energy, zero stability, and I just felt really bad physically.”
Li faces Fernandez
Li’s previous top 10 win came more than four years ago, defeating Anett Kontaveit in the second round of the Miami Open. The Saturday win is also Li’s fifth career victory over a former Grand Slam champion on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz, and she’s reached her second career Round of 16 at a WTA-1000 event (2026 Doha). She’ll face Leylah Fernandez in the fourth round.
In a comeback 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 win over 15th-seeded Iva Jovic, Fernandez booked her spot in Madrid’s last 16 at, guaranteeing her best finish at the event in her career. She’s previously reached the third round in both 2024 and 2022.
The third-round clash was the first-career meeting against Jovic, and Fernandez said she was pleased with the way she was able to bounce back from the dropped first set.
