The red clay of the Caja Magica, once a stage for Iga Swiatek’s clay-court supremacy, became the scene of a stunning upset on May 1, 2025, as the world No. 2 suffered a crushing 6-1, 6-1 defeat to Coco Gauff in the Madrid Open semi-finals. The 64-minute rout, Swiatek’s worst on clay since a 2019 Roland Garros loss to Simona Halep, not only ended her title defense but also jeopardled her 10-match unbeaten streak in Madrid. More critically, it has put her No. 2 WTA ranking in jeopardy, with Gauff poised to leapfrog her and reshape the top tier of women’s tennis.
Swiatek, a five-time Grand Slam champion and four-time Roland Garros winner, entered Madrid as the defending champion, carrying the weight of 1,000 ranking points to protect. Her 2025 season had already been turbulent, marked by a doping controversy, a semi-final exit at the Australian Open, and losses to Jelena Ostapenko and Alexandra Eala. Despite these challenges, she navigated early Madrid rounds with grit, rallying from a set down against Eala and Diana Shnaider, and overcoming a 6-0 first-set drubbing by Madison Keys in the quarter-finals. “Honestly, it was one of the weirdest matches I’ve ever played,” Swiatek said of her Keys victory, hinting at the uneven form that plagued her campaign. Her resilience, however, crumbled against Gauff, who dominated with 90% first-serve points and seven aces, leaving Swiatek with 21 forehand errors and a tearful moment under a towel.
The loss has dire implications for Swiatek’s ranking. With 610 points stripped from her tally due to her failure to reach the final, her total drops to 6,773, while Gauff’s semi-final triumph boosts her to 6,603 points—a 530-point gain from her 2024 fourth-round exit. “I felt great out here on the court today,” Gauff declared, her confidence soaring after a third straight win over Swiatek, including hard-court victories at the 2024 WTA Finals and 2025 United Cup. Should Gauff claim the Madrid title against Aryna Sabalenka or Elina Svitolina, her projected 6,953 points would eclipse Swiatek’s, propelling the 21-year-old American to a career-high No. 2 and reclaiming her status as the US No. 1 over Jessica Pegula, who fell in the third round to Moyuka Uchijima.
Swiatek’s slide to No. 3 would mark her lowest ranking since March 2022, ending a remarkable 162-week streak in the top 2. The pressure was evident even before her Madrid exit, as Pegula and Gauff loomed as threats. “I just felt like there are some stuff I need to work on,” Swiatek had said after her Eala match, citing Madrid’s high altitude as a factor in her 57 unforced errors. Her struggles against Gauff exposed deeper issues—erratic groundstrokes, faltering movement, and a mental fragility that saw her win just 26 points to Gauff’s 57. “I wasn’t ready to play back the shots with heaviness,” Swiatek admitted, reflecting on a performance that lacked her trademark clay-court dominance.
The timing of this setback is particularly stinging, with the Italian Open—where Swiatek defends another 1,000 points—starting May 7, followed by Roland Garros, where she’s a three-time champion. Her 2024 doping case, involving a positive test for trimetazidine due to contaminated melatonin, adds another layer of adversity, though she served a one-month suspension and retains minimal fault. “It was the worst of my life,” she said of the ordeal, which cost her the China Open and the No. 1 ranking to Sabalenka, who now leads by nearly 4,000 points.
As Swiatek heads to Rome, her focus is on regrouping. “Hopefully one day it’s going to click,” she said, eyeing a return to form. Gauff’s rise, meanwhile, signals a shifting landscape, with the American’s clay-court breakthrough—her first Madrid final and third-youngest WTA 1000 finalist on clay—heralding a new challenge to Swiatek’s reign. The tennis world awaits whether Swiatek can reclaim her edge or if Gauff’s momentum will redefine the WTA hierarchy.
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