The 2026 Madrid Open draw is out and both halves are stacked as defending champion Aryna Sabalenka finds herself in the same half as Iga Swiatek, Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina while Elena Rybakina has Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Victoria Mboko.<\/p>\n
The WTA 1000 event at Caja Magica gets underway on 21 April with the first-round matches while the tournament comes to a conclusion on Saturday, 2 May with the women\u2019s final set for Manolo Santana main court.<\/p>\n
World No 1 Sabalenka<\/a> was the first name on the draw sheet and she \u2013 along with the other 31 seeds \u2013 has a bye into the second round before she opens her campaign against either Peyton Stearns or Lois Boisson.<\/p>\n The four-time Grand Slam winner, who is a three-time winner in Madrid, is projected to face 14th seed Naomi Osaka in the fourth round while she could take on either eighth seed Jasmine Paolini or 11th seed Belinda Bencic in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n If the seedings hold, then Sabalenka will face fourth seed Swiatek in the last four, although the Pole is yet to reach a semi-final this year<\/a> and she has some difficult matches to get through.<\/p>\n Swiatek<\/a>, who won the title in 2024, takes on a qualifier or Daria Kasatkina in the second round while she could face 18-year-old rising star Iva Jovic in the fourth round, although the 15th-seeded American will likely have to get past 24th seed Leylah Fernandez in the third round.<\/p>\n Concerns for Emma Raducanu after latest announcement leaves big question marks<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Madrid Open withdrawal list: Emma Raducanu joins Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic as 17 players out<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n The winner of the Swiatek bracket will face either Andreeva or Svitolina in the quarter-final and the Pole has lost against both players so far this campaign.<\/p>\n Andreeva beat Swiatek in the quarter-final in Stuttgart while Svitolina got the better of the reigning Wimbledon champion at the Indian Wells Open.<\/p>\n Ninth seed Andreeva, who won the Linz Open a fortnight ago, starts off against either a qualifier or Kimberly Birrell while Svitolina faces one of Anna Bondar\/Viktorija Golubic.<\/p>\n Fresh from winning the Stuttgart Open<\/a>, Rybakina starts against the winner of the Elena-Gabriela Ruse-Antonia Ruzic encounter before a possible third-round clash with former Australian Open finalist Zhang Qinwen.<\/p>\n Rybakina<\/a> is projected to meet 2025 Australian Open winner Madison Keys, who faces Zhang Shuai or Eva Lys first up, in the fourth round and sixth seed Amanda Anisimova in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n American Anisimova kicks off her campaign against either Dayana Yastremska or Solana Sierra while she could meet 12th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the fourth round.<\/p>\n The bracket also features rising star Alex Eala with the Filipina starting her campaign against a qualifier and, if she gets through that clash, she could take on 19th seed Elise Mertens in the second round.<\/p>\n Third seed Gauff headlines Section 6 and she starts against either Oksana Selekhmeteva or a qualifier while she is projected to meet 13th seed Linda Noskova in the fourth round and fifth seed Jessica Pegula in the quarter-final.<\/p>\n Pegula, though, has a tough draw as she will face either Taylor Townsend or Katie Boulter in the second round and possibly 27th seed Marta Kostyuk in the third round.<\/p>\n But the tough matches won\u2019t stop there as she will likely have to get past 10th seed Mboko, who takes on either Caty McNally or a qualifier in her opener, in the fourth round.<\/p>\n Projected Quarter-Finals<\/strong><\/p>\n Sabalenka v Paolini The post WTA Madrid Open draw: Swiatek-Andreeva rematch on cards, Rybakina, Gauff, Mboko bottom half, Eala gets qualifier<\/a> appeared first on Tennis365<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The 2026 Madrid Open draw is out and both halves are stacked as defending champion Aryna Sabalenka finds herself in the same half as Iga Swiatek, Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina while Elena Rybakina has Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Victoria Mboko. The WTA 1000 event at Caja Magica gets underway on 21 April with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tennisring.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}WTA News<\/h2>\n
Bottom Half Draw<\/h2>\n
\nSwiatek v Svitolina
\nPegula v Gauff
\nAnisimova v Rybakina<\/p>\n