Madrid Open 2021: Iga Swiatek vs Laura Siegemund preview, head-to-head & prediction

Match details

Fixture: (14) Iga Swiatek vs Laura Siegemund

Date: 1 May 2021

Tournament: Mutua Madrid Open 2021

Round: Second round (Round of 32)

Venue: Madrid, Spain

Category: WTA 1000

Surface: Red clay

Prize money: €2,549,105

Match timing: Approx. 1 pm local time, 4.30 pm IST

Live telecast: USA - Tennis Channel | UK - Amazon Prime Video

Iga Swiatek vs Laura Siegemund preview

Iga Swiatek opened her 2021 Mutua Madrid Open campaign with a resounding straight-sets win over America's Alison Riske on Thursday.

Playing in her first claycourt match since lifting the Roland Garros crown last year, the youngster looked sharp and needed virtually no time to discover her stride. She will now look to take that momentum deeper into the tournament.

Laura Siegemund

Awaiting Swiatek in the second round is Laura Siegemund. The German has continued her solid season with a comfortable win over Kateryna Kozlova in the first round here.

Siegemund has notched up quite a few match wins this season, and has a couple of deep runs at big tournaments to her name. Add to that her general affinity for the red dirt, and you have yourself a formidable opponent.

Iga Swiatek vs Laura Siegemund head-to-head

Iga Swiatek is playing in her first claycourt tournament since winning Roland Garros

This is set to be the first career meeting between Iga Swiatek and Laura Siegemund, so the duo's current head-to-head stands at a 0-0 deadlock.

Iga Swiatek vs Laura Siegemund prediction

Iga Swiatek enters this contest as a favorite on paper. But given Laura Siegemund's results over the last few months, she will be expecting some tough resistance on Saturday.

The German made it to the last eight of Roland Garros last year and has been posting decent results ever since. She is no stranger to upsets either, especially on clay, where she has won her biggest career title (the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in 2017).

Siegemund relies a lot on her consistency from the baseline to wear opponents down. But to be able to trouble Swiatek, she will have to do something different; a passive approach is unlikely to reap her rewards. The German will instead have to find a way to take time away from her opponent, because that's when Swiatek begins to lose the shape on her groundstrokes.

Siegemund has a strong frontcourt game too, and she will have to put that to good use here. If she is unable to push Swiatek out of her striking range, the German could well be staring at a quick defeat in this one.

Prediction: Iga Swiatek to win in straight sets.