Iga Swiatek survives Shnaider scare as Madison Keys eases past Donna Vekic at Madrid Open

With normal service resuming at the Madrid Open, it was same old for defending champion Iga Swiatek albeit through a scare against 13th seed Diana Shnaider who proved that despite indifferent form as of late, she still has the tools.

The No.2 seed would've been thinking it was set to be a pretty simple with a bagel to start off proceedings but Shnaider fought back to seal the second set in a tie-break. She then battled in the final set but was eventually defeated by the World No.2.

It was 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-4 in the end in two hours and 34 minutes as Swiatek was forced to save 11 out of 13 break points in a match that could've had a whole different outcome had she not saved those likely in favour of Shnaider.

But Swiatek has form at this tournament. She has yet to lose in the quarter-finals in seven tournaments this year and is defending champion. But the next test is next round as she has not gone past the semi-finals of a tournament since Roland Garros last year. In the last eight, she faces Australian Open champion Madison Keys.

Keys famously defeated her in January at the Australian Open when Swiatek was up a match point and threw it away. But on clay, it is Swiatek's house and she will look to show that. Keys saw off Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 earlier today. Swiatek holds a 4-2 Head to head lead including 3-0 on clay.

It is now 17 consecutive clay court Quarter-Finals for Swiatek, a streak that goes back to her third round loss to Ash Barty in Madrid 2021. it is the longest streak since Martina Hingis made 19 Quarter-Finals in a row between 1997 and 2002.

Will she continue that dominance against Keys, time will tell but having survived a scare she will hope it is only up from here.