The curtain came down on the 2017 Mutua Madrid Open with a great singles final to wrap up a very eventful week. This post brings together the highlights from the tournament including a recap of the final and links to memorable matches, points, media and plenty more. All previous Match Points tournament summaries from 2016 and 2017 can be found HERE. Read on for the best bits from Madrid…
Singles Champion
Simona Halep defended her Madrid title, beating Kristina Mladenovic in a gruelling final, 7-5 6-7(5) 6-2 in two hours and 44 minutes. Halep had to work so hard to win this title and I was impressed with how she bounced back after losing the second set. While she didn’t serve for the second set or have set points, the frustration at not being able to finish in straights did boil over on one occasion – she threw and kicked her racquet after one particular point, barely touching a ballsperson. Mladenovic was bothered by the back injury from yesterday but battled and defended admirably, and played some breathtaking points in the second set tiebreak.
Huge credit to Halep for regaining her focus in the decider – this was a superb effort to defend her title and winning a match like this will only help her mentally going forward. For Mladenovic, I loved her effort and sportsmanship at the end. Her record in final is concerning but if she keeps putting herself in these positions, it will come. In my opinion, both are legitimate contenders for the French Open.
Doubles Champions
Chan Yung-Jan and Martina Hingis won the doubles title, defeating Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova, 6-2 6-4 in Saturday’s final.
Top Tweets
Madrid first round – Caroline Wozniacki d. Monica Niculescu, 7-5 6-7(3) 6-4.
I couldn’t help but laugh because I understand the feeling.. seriously speaking, Sveta played some fine tennis in Madrid.
Super Snap(s)
Loved these pictures of Carla Suárez Navarro by Tatiana on Twitter.
A cracking shot of Eugenie Bouchard after her second round win over Maria Sharapova on Monday night.
Super Stat
Not only did Halep defend her title in Madrid, but she became the first player to reach three finals in Madrid.
Memorable Match
There were a handful of excellent matches from Madrid including the final. The highlight though had to be the Bouchard-Sharapova blockbuster from Monday night – how rare is it that a hyped up match actually delivers? I was more expecting the drama to be on point but the quality and intensity of this match was stunning.
Best Point(s)
Loved this crunching rally between Maria Sharapova and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in their first round match, finished off with a crisp winner by MLB.
This one could make the “Best shot” section too like above but it was a great point. Wonderful touch from Mladenovic to win it having defended magnificently at everything that Halep threw at her.
Again from the final… incredible defence from Mladenovic!
Best Shot(s)
Kristina Mladenovic, take a bow.
And this was another touch of class from Mladenovic during the second set tiebreak of the final. Note that Halep also applauds the shot.
The Bouchard-Sharapova match produced some stunning rallies and a pair of hot shots. Firstly, this get from Bouchard! 😲
Followed by a tremendous on-the-run forehand winner by Sharapova.
Super Sportsmanship
A classy end to a high quality semi-final between Kristina Mladenovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
LOL Moment
Sveta! 😂😂😂
Cracking Quote
Great words from Francesca Schiavone.
Press Conference
A couple of interesting quotes from Eugenie Bouchard after her second round win over Maria Sharapova.
Tennis Draw Challenge Champion
Congratulations to saralenafan who won the Draw Challenge for Madrid. To join in the fun, you can enter Tennis Draw Challenge and join the Moo’s Tennis Blog league.
Moo's Tennis Blog 
Well I actually think that winning the title would probably have cursed Mladenovic to endure a real slump. Whereas now I’d call her one of the most dangerous players for the French Open. She’s bound to get crowd support and home backing for favorable court scheduling.
It’s a shame Kuznetsova didn’t make the final though, I reckon she’d have beaten Halep.
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The head to head between them is 4-3 in Simona’s favour and the final was on her favourite surface, so IMO it’s by no means certain that Sveta would have beaten her.
Actually I think Simona’s game is a lot like Sveta’s, with her emphasis on athleticism and foot speed and creating difficult angles for her opponents to hit back from, so it would have been an interesting match; but as it was I think Kiki did a marvellous job of remaining competitive in the match despite obviously suffering with back pain after the first set, and I didn’t see her complain about it even after the match.
Anyway, congrats to Simona on defending her title; it’s quite *rare for that to happen now, which to me shows how competitive the WTA is nowadays.
* Apart from Serena at Miami of course.
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Course it’s no given, nothing really is… I do think Kuznetsova is a bad match for Halep because Sveta does most things better. Halep just has more hunger to win.
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Rome Qualies 2nd round—Barty vs Ostapenko, Gavrilova vs Mattek-Sands, Mona Barthel vs Lepchenko, Petkovic vs Dodin—-seems like an International event QFs.
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Tough for Ashleigh Barty… Ostapenko already has 8 main draw wins on clay this year!
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Very intriguing match-ups there!
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Why is Hingis giving us the fingers in that photo?!
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Haha
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