Marta Kostyuk defeated No. 9 seed Mirra Andreeva 6-3, 7-5 to claim her first WTA 1000 title at the Mutua Madrid Open. The one hour and 21-minute victory extended Kostyuk’s clay-court run this spring to 12 consecutive wins, the longest streak of her career.

Marta Kostyuk, Roland Garros dark horse?

Kostyuk entered the clay season having won a WTA 250 in Rouen, France, and she also recorded a win in Billie Jean King Cup play for Ukraine over Magda Linette. Those results preceded her breakthrough at the first WTA 1000 event of the clay-court calendar.

Her win over Andreeva in the final was straight sets but hard-fought, with the second set finishing 7-5. The match marked a significant milestone for Kostyuk, who will rise to a new career-high ranking of No. 15 on Monday, surpassing her previous best of No. 16.

The title in Madrid caps a rapid sequence of form on clay for Kostyuk this spring. Her run through a WTA 250, national team competition and now a WTA 1000 demonstrates a notable and sustained level of play on the surface. The victory in Madrid adds the biggest trophy of her career to date and signals a shift in her ranking and standing as the clay season moves forward.

Two rising figures meet for the Madrid Open title after matching momentum through the clay swing. Mirra Andreeva, who turned 19 earlier this week, and Marta Kostyuk have both been in strong form since the clay season began.

“I’m very excited for tomorrow,” she said the day before her birthday, “but at the same time I caught myself being a little bit sad. Because I don’t want to be old, and I don’t want to grow up. I want to just stay 18 and be a kid all the time.”

Andreeva began her pro career at 15 and looked precocious from the outset. At 16 she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros; at 17 she won back-to-back WTA 1000s and climbed to No. 5 in the rankings. Kostyuk joined the tour at 13 and won two rounds at the Australian Open at 15; now 23, she holds a career-high ranking of 16 after 10 years on tour.

Both players opened the clay swing by capturing a 250 title on dirt: Andreeva in Linz and Kostyuk in Rouen. Andreeva went on to beat Iga Swiatek and reach the Stuttgart semifinals. Kostyuk upset No. 5 Jessica Pegula in Madrid and has compiled a 10-match winning streak heading into the final.

Kostyuk has credited longer-term therapy for helping her temper on court and her recent consistency. “I’ve always wanted to change my overall perspective on tennis,” she said this week. “Because for me it was always very, very emotional, and I would spend just a lot of energy, and everything would matter so much to me. Whether it was wins or losses, it was, you know, very just difficult to live in this constant emotional bombing from the inside.”

Andreeva, who has had her own struggles with volatility, stressed a similar approach after defeating Hailey Baptiste. “I was not reacting a lot on the points, or on the games that I was winning,” she said after beating Hailey Baptiste in the semifinals . “I felt like that was helping me to stay calmer, and also kind of saving the energy a little bit…I was just trying to think to not react at anything that was happening.”

They met once this year in Brisbane, Kostyuk winning 7-6 (7), 6-3. Andreeva arrives as the favorite, ranked 15 spots higher (No. 8 to 23), with stronger clay résumé and status as a projected future Roland Garros contender. The final will test which player can sustain calm and convert the momentum of an impressive clay run into a WTA 1000 title.

Franklin Tiafoe’s simple instruction arrived at a decisive moment: “Breath and believe, breathe and believe.” With that line in her ear and the steady presence of coach Will Woodall, Hailey Baptiste turned a gradual rise into a sudden surge at the Madrid Open.

The 24-year-old reached her first WTA 1000 semifinal and stunned the tour with a victory over Aryna Sabalenka, saving six match points to register her first win over a world No. 1. Earlier in the draw she defeated eighth-ranked Jasmine Paolini and 11th-ranked Belinda Bencic, a sequence that underlined how far her game has come.

Baptiste’s progress has been methodical. She closed seasons at 166, 131, 92 and 61, and since January she has nearly cut that again to No. 32. Her style mirrors that arc: unhurried, efficient and thoughtful. She can strike as hard as any player, but she prefers to build points with a kick serve or a slice backhand before finishing.

“I just like to be creative on court,” Baptiste says. “I grew up playing with boys pretty much my whole youth. My coaches kind of coached me to play a little bit more like a guy.” “Obviously it helps me, I think. Girls don’t love the kick serve and the slice.”

Her parents and the USTA played key roles early on. “He couldn’t keep doing it,” Baptiste said of her father’s patience. “He didn’t love it as much as I did.” She began at the JTCC in College Park at 9 and moved to the national training center in Orlando at 15. “The USTA had a huge, huge impact on me,” she said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am.” One coach in particular, Jamea Jackson, also helped: “She got my head screwed on straight, explaining what it’s like to be a professional. She started transitioning me into that mindset.”

Baptiste spent stretches on tour without a coach, learning to process losses alone. “Lose a match, didn’t really have anyone to talk to afterwards,” Baptiste said of those days. “Had to do the whole [post-match] debrief process by myself. You just learn things about yourself and about the game. I think it gave me confidence.”

She fought back again in the semifinal against Mirra Andreeva, saving a match point and reaching 3-5 in the second set before falling in a tight tiebreaker. “I decided to stop fighting myself,” Baptiste said. “I want to say, ‘Oh, it’s so hard, you don’t understand what I’m feeling.’ But at the end of the day, it’s just a decision.” “Either you get over it, or you sit in that feeling, and sitting in that feeling has gotten me nowhere.”

Madrid showed Baptiste can challenge the elite and argues she belongs in the U.S. contender conversation alongside Coco Gauff and Amanda Anisimova.