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WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.16- Duly, Madly, Madrid

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WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.16- Duly, Madly, Madrid


*WEEK 16*

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[Madrid Q/1st-3rd Rd.]

RISERS: Leylah Fernandez/CAN and Caty McNally/USA

…Fernandez came up short last week in Stuttgart after holding a pair of MP vs. eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the QF. An immediate second week run in Madrid won’t make up for that miss, but it can’t hurt.

The Canadian posted a pair of first week wins, knocking off Julia Grabher and Iva Jovic, the latter Fernandez’s second Top 20 win this season.

Meanwhile, McNally was once known as Coco Gauff’s doubles buddy, as “McCoco” reached the ’21 U.S. Open final and the pair combined for three of McNally’s nine career WTA doubles crowns. A few years ago, the Bannerette began to make a solo name for herself, climbing to #54 in singles in 2023. But an elbow injury which required surgery early in the ’24 season forced her to reset and begin the long “rebuild.”

McNally started to flash moments again last season, winning both a 125 and $100K title last summer, and late in the year reaching the QF in Guangzhou, her first Last Eight at tour level since ’23.

McNally reached another tour QF in Ostrava in February, and won a doubles title in Charleston, but she arrived in Madrid at just 9-10 on the year. Flashforward a few days and the 24-year old’s first-week reign in Spain has allowed her to truly begin to find her way back into her previous lane. After an opening win over countrywoman Katie Volynets, McNally stunned Victoria Mboko in the Canadian’s ’26 clay debut, notching her first career Top 10 win.

Not shrinking after such a reaffirming and potentially course-changing result, McNally came back two days later and battled Czech veteran Katerina Siniakova over three sets, saving a pair of MP in the deciding set and then dominating a closing tie-break to play her way into her first career 1000 Round of 16.

McNally’s up to a “live” #63 in the rankings (up 13 spots), and with one more win (vs. Kostyuk) she’ll have fought *all* the way back as it would secure a new career-high (at #53)

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SURPRISE: Anna Bondar/HUN

…with the start of the clay season, 28-year old Bondar has suddenly become a player to keep an eye on. Despite a QF run in Hobart back in Week 2, the Hungarian somewhat muddled through a 7-8 start to her season on hard courts, but she’s kicked things up to another level on the dirt.

Last July, Bondar reached her maiden tour singles final on the clay in Hamburg.

With a Charleston 3rd Round, undefeated BJK stint (3-0) and Rouen QF, Bondar came into Madrid with momentum. She’s carried it forward with wins over Viktorija Golubic, Elina Svitolina (her first career Top 10 win, but second upset of Svitolina since last summer, having also notched a 1st Round win over the Ukrainian at last year’s U.S. Open) and Laura Samson to reach her first 1000 4th Round. Bondar is 10-2 on clay in 2026.

It’s been more than eight years since a woman from Hungary had a Top 10 win, and *seventeen* since one did it on clay.

With a “live” ranking inside the Top 60, Bondar is threatening her career high rank of #50 (in 2022). She’ll next face another Top 10er in Mirra Andreeva, who has already taken down *two* Hungarians this week in Madrid, defeating both Dalma Galfi and Panna Udvardy.

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VETERAN: Karolina Pliskova/CZE

…after playing just three matches in 2025 due to a problematic foot injury that required multiple surgeries, the 34-year Czech has already put together a pretty successful comeback campaign just four months into the new season.

An AO 3rd Round run (her best in a major since an AO23 QF) as the world #1057 was followed by a Top 10 win over Amanda Anisimova (via ret., but still) in Doha that was her first since the ’24 grass season, as well as a QF run in Linz that was her best tour-level result since winning Nottingham in ’24.

Ranked #197 and in the Madrid MD with her protected ranking, Pliskova rallied from a set down to defeat Sinja Kraus in the 1st Round, and has followed up with additional victories over Maria Sakkari and Elise Mertens, staging a comeback from 4-1 in the 3rd (saving four BP to avoid a 5-1 hole) and eventually defeating the veteran Waffle in a deciding TB.

Pliskova’s Round of 16 (so far) run is her first in Madrid since 2018.

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COMEBACKS: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova/RUS and Fiona Ferro/FRA

…last summer, having played her way through a bout with Lyme disease, Pavlyuchenkova shined during the grass season, reaching a semifinal in Eastbourne and the Wimbledon QF. Since then, though, wins have been hard to come by for the 34-year old. She arrived in Madrid 0-6 on the season, and 1-11 since leaving SW19.

As a result, the #116-ranked veteran’s qualifying run came as a nice injection of optimism, coming with wins over Viktoriya Tomova and Yuliia Starodubtseva (the latter despite 15 DF), even with her exit in the 1st Round against Alex Eala during which her match (and winning) rust were evident, and the physical stress of playing multiple matches for the first time in ages held her back (she took a mid-match MTO).

Meanwhile, it’s been a pretty tough few years for Ferro, as injuries as well as off-court turmoil (in the form of her filing rape and sexual assault charges in ’22 against her former coach as a 15-18 year old) have seen the two-time tour singles champion (in 2019-20) plummet down the rankings and often fall off the tennis radar. A one-time world #39 (in 2021), Ferro dropped out of the Top 400 in 2023 and has ridden a ranking rollercoaster ever since, climbing back into the Top 130 in ’24, but then never cracking the Top 300 last season (ending the year at #417).

Currently ranked #246, the now 29-year old Pastry was in this week’s Oeiras 125 with her protected ranking, and proceeded to add some hardware to what has been a resurgent ’26 campaign.

Already with a $75K final in January and 125 SF in February, Ferro improved to 16-6 on the season with her first singles title on any level in three years, completing a week that began with a three-set 1st Round win over Bianca Andreescu, and ended with another three-setter in the final over Polina Kudermetova in which Ferro was treated for a back/hip injury between the 2nd/3rd sets and came off the trainer’s table to secure a 6-1 final set win.

Ferro is back in the Top 200 in the “live” rankings.

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FRESH FACES: Tyra Grant/ITA and Solana Sierra/ARG

…just a few weeks past her $35K win on Italian clay, her first title run as an official representative of Italy, 18-year old Grant qualified in Madrid (def. Veronika Erjavec and Panna Udvardy) to reach her first tour-level MD of 2026, and her first ever without the aid of a wild card, as was the case in her two previous events, both last year in Miami (while still with “USA” next to her name) and Rome (in her hometown, and newly “ITA”-ized).

Grant’s 1st Round Madrid victory over Elsa Jacquemot gave the world #262 her maiden WTA MD win. She fell in straights a round later to Sorana Cirstea, but led the veteran Romanian 4-2 in the 2nd and served for the set at 5-4, while also leading 5-4 in the ensuing TB. Cirstea won it 7-5.

Grant, 12-4 on the year (w/ 9 of her wins coming on clay), is around a “live” #225 mid-way through Madrid, ahead of her upcoming return appearance in Rome. She ranked as high as #208 last September.

Though 21-year old Sierra’s surprise 4th Round run (as a LL) at last year’s Wimbledon stands as her best major result (she’s 1-4 in her other MD appearances, including a win at AO26), she surely knows her way around clay. She’s won both of her 125 crowns on the dirt, and reached the RG junior final on the terre battue in 2022. This week, Sierra mad her Madrid debut, and it’s gone very well so far.

She opened with a 7-6/7-6 win over Dayana Yastremska, saving SP in both sets, then handled Magdalena Frech in straights before quickly putting a love 1st set behind her against Zeynep Sonmez to defeat the Turk in three.

Sierra is th first woman from Argentina to reach the Round of 16 in Madrid, and the first to do so at any 1000 since 2021 (Nadia Podoroska in Rome).

With her 17-spot boost to a “live” #72, Sierra now stands as not only the ARG #1, but she’s also currently the highest ranked woman from the entire continent of South America. Her second week run has lifted her past the two-headed Colombian combo of Camila Osorio (#82) and Emiliana Arango (#84), as well as Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia (#79).

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ITF PLAYER: Taylah Preston/AUS

…20-year old Aussie Preston got off to a great start in ’26, reaching her maiden tour SF in Hobart, getting her first career Top 30 win (def. Raducanu), and posting her maiden slam MD win in Melbourne over Zhang Shuai (before a three-set loss to Linda Noskova).

Still hopping around the Asian region, Preston followed up with $75K SF and QF in Brisbane in February, then a pair of $100K QF in Bengaluru (IND) and Lu’an (CHN). This week, she claimed her biggest career title, taking the $100K Tokyo crown with wins over Harriet Dart, Mai Hontama and Lanlana Tararudee in a 6-1/4-6/6-4 final.

She’ll rise around 20 spots to a new “live” career high of #128.

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JUNIOR STAR: Ksenia Efremova/FRA

…16-year old Efremova, the junior #1 and reigning AO girls’ champ, notched her first-ever win in a tour-level event — after going 0-3 in her previous qualifying attempts — in Madrid qualifying over Lulu Sun.

The Pastry lost 6-1/7-6(4) to Alycia Parks in the final round, after serving for the 2nd set at 5-3, getting as close as 30/30 and deuce to sending the contest to a 3rd set.

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WHEELCHAIR: Yui Kamiji/JPN

…Kamiji didn’t win the season’s biggest titles (so far) in the Australian Open singles and doubles competitions in January, but she’s won everything else. Literally.

This weekend, the world #1 swept the s/d titles at the Japan Open 1000 event in Iizuka, doing so at her fifth of six events this season. After winning the doubles alongside Zhu Zhenzhen with a victory over AO champs Li Xiaohui & Wang Ziying — the duo’s second win in a final over the Chinese pair in the last two weeks, after having lost to them in the AO final in Melbourne — Kamiji completed her title-winning set with a 6-4/6-3 win in the singles final over countrywoman Momoko Ohtani, who’d pulled off consecutive upsets of Ksenia Chasteau, Li and Aniek Van Koot.

A combined 20-0 since falling in the AO singles semis (to Li) and doubles finals, winning all six post-Melbourne titles for which she’s competed, Kamiji is 16-1 (w/ 12 straight wins) in singles and 15-1 (9 in a row) in doubles in 2026.



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[Madrid Q/1st-3rd Rd.]

1. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Ann Li def. Iga Swiatek

…7-6(5)/2-6/3-0 ret. Another disappointing result from Swiatek, who ultimately retired due to illness, but had she been able to close out the 1st set when she had the chance it may not have had to come to that.

After Li failed to put away a SP at 5-4 in the opener, Swiatek had two of her own at 6-5. Li forced a TB, where a tight affair was broken open with a forehand error from Swiatek that suddenly gave Li a pair of additional SP chances at 6-4. A backhand drop shot from behind the baseline took care of that.

After knotting the match with a 2nd set win, Swiatek fell behind a break early in the 3rd and retired just a few games into game 4 after falling behind 3-0.

With little time to find her match form before heading to Paris, Swiatek’s clay court numbers for this year could very well take another severe downturn after *last* year’s were already a big step (or two, or three) back from her previous seasons-long dominance on the surface.



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2. Madrid 1st Rd. – Daria Snigur def. Dasha Kasatkina

…6-3/3-6/7-6(13). 4-7 on the year, Kasatkina remains winless (0-2) since her return after missing two months with a hip injury. She had the opportunity for a victory in a crazy, back-and-forth affair, but fell in an error-strewn match in which neither she nor Snigur seemed capable of putting away the victory.

Kasatkina held four MP within the chaos, and saved six MP before Snigur finally won on her seventh to end a 28-point TB.

Kasatkina had rallied from 3-1 down in the 3rd to pull even, but Snigur reclaimed the lead. She couldn’t serve out the win at 5-4, though, nor could Kasatkina put away the day’s first MP at 6-5 on return.

In the TB, the dance began when Snigur held her first two MP at 6-4. She couldn’t claim either, then saw Kasatkina have three more MP the rest of the way, while Snigur had *five*. She wouldn’t need an additional sixth.

Snigur fell quickly in two to Iga Swiatek in the next round.

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3. Madrid 2nd Rd. – Caty McNally def. Victoria Mboko

…6-4/6-1. Mboko falls in her ’26 clay court debut, with McNally notching her maiden Top 10 win.

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4. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Caty McNally def. Katerina Siniakova

…6-3/2-6/7-6(2). After posting her first career Top 10 win, McNally still had more to give, rallying from 4-2 down in the 3rd and saving a pair of MP as Siniakova served for the win at 5-4.

Forcing a deciding tie-break, the Bannerette dominated as she raced out to a 6-1 lead before putting away the victory at 7-2.

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5. Madrid 2nd Rd. – Jaqueline Cristian def. Yuliia Starodubtseva

…3-6/7-6(5)/6-4. A lucky loser who recorded a 1st Round win, Charleston finalist Starodubtseva led 6-3/4-2 here. After she and Cristian exchanged a pair of breaks over a four-game stretch, the Ukrainian served for the win at 6-5 and held three MP.

Cristian forced a TB, where she rallied from 4-2 down to win 7-5, then went on to take the 3rd at 6-4 to claim her tour-leading third win this season after having faced a MP.

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6. Madrid 1st Rd. – Solana Sierra def. Dayana Yastremska

…7-6(10)/7-6(8). Yastremska somehow lost this one in straights, despite holding SP in both the 1st and 2nd, as Sierra posts her first career Madrid MD win.

The Ukrainian led 5-2 and held a SP on return in the opener, as well as serving at 5-3. In the 1st set TB, Yastremska had triple SP at 6-3, then another SP at 8-7. But, on her first SP at 11-10, it was Sierra who grabbed the lead in the match.

The 2nd set saw Yastremska twice serve to knot the match at 5-4 and 6-5, only to be pushed to another TB by the Argentine. There, Yastremska had a SP at 6-5, but Sierra surged late again, taking three tries but finally putting away the win at 10-8 on MP #3.

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7. Madrid 2nd Rd. – Elena Rybakina def. Gabriela Ruse

…4-6/6-3/7-5. In her Madrid opener, Rybakina had to immediately dip into her match toughness reserve left over from Stuttgart, rallying from 3-1 in the 3rd to get the win.

Rybakina broke the Romanian in game 11 after Ruse had held a GP for a 5-4 edge, then immediately went up 40/love on serve before eventually putting away her third MP.

Late on Sunday, Rybakina was at it again, staging a comeback from a set down to defeat Zheng Qinwen.

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8. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Marta Kostyuk def. Jessie Pegula

…6-1/6-4. Kostyuk maintains her Rouen-winning form on clay, posting her first Top 10 win on the surface since the 2024 Olympics.

Meanwhile, Pegula adds the Ukrainian to her short list of ’26 nemeses. The world #5 is 0-3 vs. Elena Rybakina this season, and now 0-2 against Kostyuk (after an equally decisive 6-0/6-3 loss in Brisbane). She’s 25-0 against everyone else.

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9. Madrid 2nd Rd. – Anna Bondar def. Elina Svitolina

…6-3/6-4. Bondar notches her first career Top 10 win against Stuttgart semifinalist Svitolina, matching her win against her at last year’s U.S. Open. It’s been eight years since a Hungarian woman has recorded a Top 10 win (Babos def. Vandeweghe at AO18).

And unlike after a pair of earlier matches this season against another Ukrainian, Oleksandra Oliynykova, she actually got a post-match handshake from UKR #1 Svitolina.

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10. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Hailey Baptiste def. Jasmine Paolini

…7-5/6-3. Baptiste records her third career Top 10 win, her first on clay, with a straight sets upset of Paolini. Her previous wins came over Elina Svitolina last month in Miami, and Barbora Krejcikova in Wuhan in ’24.

Paolini, who’ll next defend her Rome singles title (doubles, too), falls to 10-9 on the season.

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11. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Anastasia Potapova def. Alona Ostapenko

…4-6/6-4/6-4. After officially entering the MD (w/ a 1st Round bye) as a lucky loser with the withdrawal of Madison Keys, Linz finalist Potapova has put her qualifying loss to Sinja Kraus behind her and played her way into the second week of Madrid for a second straight year, staging a comeback from a set down against Ostapenko, who drops back to .500 (11-11) on the season.

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12. Madrid 1st Rd. – Emiliana Arango def. Talia Gibson

…6-3/6-2. Gibson’s great Sunshine Swing is now getting smaller and smaller in her rear view mirror, as her 4th Round loss to Elena Rybakina in Miami now marks the start of what has become a three-match losing streak.

Of course, the Aussie’s skid comes with a potentially significant footnote, as it’s taken place over three continents, as after leaving North America Gibson went all the way back to Australia, where she was upset in the BJK Qualifiers opener by British teen Mika Stojsavljevic before heading off to Europe to fall to Arango in Spain (in a contest which came on April 22, exactly one month since her last match win).

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13. Madrid 1st Rd. – Peyton Stearns def. Lois Boisson

…6-1/6-3. Playing in her first match since September (Beijing), her first on clay since winning her maiden tour title in Hamburg last July, and in her first outing with new coach Hendrik Vleeshouwers, surprise ’25 RG semifinalist Boisson falls in two.

It’ll be fascinating to see just how much “muscle memory” will arrive along with Française Forehand when she returns to Paris next month.

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14. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Naomi Osaka def. Anhelina Kalinina

…6-1/6-3. A good clay win for Osaka, defeating Kalinina in straights.

The Ukrainian has had a blazing spring clay run, with four straight 125 finals and a MD win (as a LL) in Linz. She qualified in Madrid, and posted MD wins over Kamilla Rakhimova and Marie Bouzkova.

Even with the loss to Osaka, Kalinina is 24-4 in her last 28 (all on clay) and will be back inside the Top 100 (for the first time since June) after Madrid.

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15. Madrid Q2 – Alina Charaeva def. Nikola Bartunkova

…6-7(6)/6-2/7-6(6). The 3rd set of this one was an odd bird, as its twelve pre-TB games included five love holds between the two (including four straight in games 9-through-12) as well as a love break.

Eventually, Bartunkova held triple MP at 6-3 in the deciding breaker, only to see Charaeva sweep the final five points of the match to reach her maiden 1000 MD.

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16. $50K Roehampton ENG Final – Vendula Valdmannova def. Viktoria Hruncakova

…3-2 ret. Another week, another Crusher champion, as 18-year old Valdmannova grabs her third (and biggest) career ITF crown when veteran Hruncakova retires after just five games.

Valdmannova made her tour-level MD debut as a wild card in Ostrava earlier this season. She’ll jump 40+ spots to a new “live” high inside the Top 220.

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HM- $15K Orlando USA Final – Welles Newman def. Janae Preston

…3–6/7–6(7)/6–0. 16-year old Newman, in just her her sixth pro event, outlasts 15-year old fellow Bannerette Preston, playing in just her fifth pro tournament, to claim her maiden pro win.

Both teenagers shined early this season in juniors, with Preston winning three consecutive J300 titles, and Wells reaching the Barranquilla J300 SF in January and the Porto Alegre J300 final (a loss to Nauhany Leme Da Silva) last month.

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[Madrid Q/1st-3rd Rd.]

1. Madrid 3rd Rd. – Karolina Pliskova def. Elise Mertens

…7-5/2-6/7-6(3). Down 1-4, love/40 on serve in the 3rd, Pliskova staved off four BP to avert what might have been in surmountable Mertens lead. After getting the hold, the Czech broke Mertens in the folloiwng game to get the set back on serve. Down 2-0 in the deciding TB, Pliskova won seven of the final eight points to crash the 4th Round in Madrid for the first time since 2018.

Pliskova reached the SF at that tournament eight years ago, and is one of just two of that year’s quarterfinalists who are still active on tour. The likes of Kvitova (W), Bertens (RU), Garcia (SF), Halep, Suarez Navarro and Sharapova have all called it a career, while just Pliskova and Dasha Kasatkina remain.

For every Venus Williams, there are dozens and dozens (and dozens and dozens) of others who *can’t* make continual deals to escape the passage of time.

Speaking of…

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2. Madrid 1st Rd. – Kaitlin Quevedo def. Venus Williams

…6-2/6-4. Another wild card, another brief appearance in singles as Williams plays her first match on clay since a 1st Round exit at Roland Garros in 2021, dropping to 0-7 on the year with her career-long tenth straight defeat.

Williams is now 8-40 this decade.

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3. Oeiras 4 125 Final – Sofia Costoulas/Matilde Jorge def. Magali Kempen/Lara Salden

…6-4/6-2. Costoulas gets her biggest career WD win, while Jorge claims her third career 125 crown, her first without her big sister Francisca, who last played a few weeks ago after retiring from the sisters’ doubles match at another event in Oeiras.

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HM- Oeiras 4 125 Final – Fiona Ferro def. Polina Kudermetova

…6-3/0-6/6-1. Ferro, after taking an MTO for her back/hip after dropping a love 2nd set, comes back strong to take the title in the 3rd.

For Kudermetova, it’s another good result in what has become a bounce-back season following what was both a breakout *and* disappointing ’25 campaign. Last year, while still a Hordette, she reached the Brisbane final, cracked the Top 100 and reached #54, while playing in all four majors for the first time, as well as being in the MD at 9 of 10 1000s; but also lost ten straight in the middle of the season, retired from her 1st Round U.S. Open match, and finished up with a record of 20-27.

The new Uzbeki (down to #137) is 21-9 on the new year, with a pair of 125 runner-up results (w/ Canberra in January). She’s 16-5 on clay (after being 1-5 in ’25) with a current 12-3 run.

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Next up for their turn in the barrel…


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Ditto…

“the critics who shaped our modern idea of the novel in English so frequently dismissed women writers that the systematic excising has a name. It’s called The Great Forgetting.”
– Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney

#SundaySentence

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— Shannon Fallon (@shannonfallon.com) March 29, 2026 at 4:41 PM


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I have a new post on my author blog.
dianeelaynedeesauthor.blogspot.com/2026/04/some… #NationalLibraryWeek

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— Diane Elayne Dees (@womenwhoserve.bsky.social) April 24, 2026 at 11:42 AM



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*MOST MATCH WINS w/ MP SAVED (WTA/GS MD only) in 2026*
3 – Jaqueline Cristian
2 – Magdalena Frech
2 – Victoria Mboko
2 – Wang Xinyu (both in same event – Auckland)
2 – Yuan Yue

*MOST TOP 10 WINS in 2026 (through Sunday)*
7 – Elena Rybakina
5 – Victoria Mboko
5 – Karolina Muchova
5 – Aryna Sabalenka
4 – Marta Kostyuk
4 – Jessie Pegula
4 – Elina Svitolina

*2026 WC EVENT CHAMPIONS (100+/jr.majors)*
=1Q=
Sydney 500: Yui Kamiji/JPN
Melbourne 500: Wang Xiying/CHN
Melbourne 1000: Yui Kamiji/JPN
AO: Li Xiaohui/CHN
AO Juniors: Luna Gryp/BEL
Rotterdam 500: Diede de Groot/NED
Bolton 100: Pauline Deroulede/FRA
Bolton 175: Angelica Bernal/COL
Rome USA 500: Lizzy de Greef/NED
Baton Rouge 1000:: Kgothatso Montjane/RSA
Biel/Bienne 100: Britta Wend/GER
Miami 500: Aniek Van Koot/NED
Santiago 175: Pauline Deroulede/FRA
=2Q=
Busan 175: Guo Luoyano/CHN
Daego 500: Li Xiaohui/CHN
Miki-City 175: Yui Kamiji/JPN
Houston 100: Macarena Cabrillana/CHI
Seoul 500: Yui Kamiji/JPN
Rouen 100: Lucy Shuker/GBR
Iizuka 1000: Yui Kamiji/JPN

WTA Backspin by Todd Spiker: Wk.16- Duly, Madly, Madrid

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Every day, I am more convinced that we are going to need to just turn everything off and start again. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/24/b…

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— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) April 25, 2026 at 2:48 PM


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All for now.

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