Sabalenka defeats Gauff to win third Madrid title, 20th WTA singles title
Aryna Sabalenka is officially a triple threat in Madrid, although she had to fight hard to close out her latest win.
World No. 1 Sabalenka won her third career Mutua Madrid Open title with a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory over No. 4 seed Coco Gauff in Saturday's WTA 1000 final.
Sabalenka staved off a second-set charge by Gauff, who was seeking her first title of the year and a possible return to the World No. 2 ranking. Sabalenka erased a set point at 5-4 on her way to a 1-hour and 39-minute victory.
"I'm just super excited every time to come to Madrid to play on this beautiful court," Sabalenka said after her win. "I don't know, I just love this court, I love the support here, I think that's the secret."
Madrid: Draws | Scores | Order of play
Increasing totals: This marks Sabalenka's milestone 20th career Hologic WTA Tour singles title. Additionally, she is now tied for the most Mutua Madrid Open titles in women's singles; Petra Kvitova has also won this title thrice (2011, 2015 and 2018).
Sabalenka continues her pattern of winning this title in odd-numbered years during this decade. She beat then-World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty to claim the title in 2021, and took down another reigning No. 1, Iga Swiatek, in the 2023 final. Sabalenka nearly completed the hat trick last year but narrowly lost to Swiatek in last year's classic final.
Leading the field: Sabalenka picked up her tour-leading third title of the year in Madrid, after hoisting the trophy at Brisbane and the previous WTA 1000 event, Miami. Sabalenka is just the second player to win Miami and Madrid in the same season, joining Serena Williams in 2013.
Sabalenka is also well in front as this year's match-win leader at Hologic WTA Tour events. Saturday's victory over Gauff was her 31st match-win of 2025, and she is firmly in front of second-placed Jessica Pegula (27 match-wins in 2025).
"I've been working [my] whole life to achieve this goal, and to be on the top of the ranking, that means a lot," Sabalenka said.
Tale of the match: Gauff came into Saturday's final leading Sabalenka 5-4 in their head-to-head. This included a win for the American in their only previous clay-court match at 2021 Rome.
But after Gauff toughed out a tricky opening hold, Sabalenka took control in the first set. Pulverizing second serves whenever she could, the World No. 1 won the next 17 points consecutively to build a dominant 4-1 lead.
Gauff got one break back and had a chance in Sabalenka's service game at 4-3 as well, but Sabalenka regrouped from a brief wobble and collected three games on the run to seal the first set.
But that was merely a lead-in to a gripping second set. Gauff continued her improvement, putting more action on her shots and hitting heavier forehands, and she earned an early break, eventually serving for the set at 5-4.
That was a nail-biting game, where Sabalenka saw a 0-40 advantage slip away -- including one point where her racquet literally slipped out of her hands:
In that game, Gauff came all the way back from triple break point down to set point.
But Sabalenka continued to grind, and she converted her fifth break point of the game to pull level at 5-5. Two games later, Sabalenka held her first championship point, but Gauff battled to set up a crucial tiebreak, as drizzle began to fall.
In the breaker, Sabalenka saw another lead dwindle from 3-0 to 3-3, but the top seed drew errors from Gauff to reclaim her edge and hold three more championship points at 6-3. A stirring clash unfortunately ended with Gauff's eighth double fault.
Sabalenka is now 6-0 against Top 10 players this season. Gauff did finish the final with four more winners than Sabalenka, but the American also had seven more unforced errors as Sabalenka narrowly triumphed.
"I've been working really hard and improving my game on bringing variety into my game," Sabalenka said. "I think that's the biggest key in most of the matches right now.
"I'm super happy that we were able to improve my game in, honestly, in everything, the movement, my touch game is much better right now. ... Kind of like trying to come to the net, I'm not sure if it's really successful so far, but I'm trying," Sabalenka said with a laugh.
