Uchijima Moe Natsu Madrid won nine consecutive victories and became Japan's new first sister

On April 29, local time, the 2025 WTA1000 Madrid station decided the women's singles quarterfinals. Japan's Monetsu Uchijima defeated 21st seed Aleksandar Lova 6-4, 7-6(5) to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA1000 tournament for the first time in her career.

Uchijima Moe Summer

Photo: Visual China

Moe Natsu Uchijima reached the quarterfinals of the WTA Rouen the week before Madrid, starting her journey in Madrid with a world ranking of No. 56 (just five points behind No. 55 Naomi Osaka and the second sister of Japan).

In the first round, Uchijima defeated wild card player Montgomery in straight sets; In the second round, she fought former tournament champion Abdul-Jabbar in three sets before coming back from behind; In the third round, facing the then No. 3 Pegula, Uchijima Monetsu won a complete victory. In the quarterfinals against Aleksandrova, she broke her opponent five times and won in straight sets. After setting a personal best record in the WTA1000 division, Uchijima's instant ranking jumped to No. 47 and has already secured her first spot in the top 50 next week, surpassing Naomi Osaka (who competes in the WTA 125k St Malo this week) as Japan's first sister.

Moe Natsu Uchijima has participated in the China Tour

Photo: Li Jianyi

After the match, Moematsu Uchijima said: "The situation in Japan is that we usually play tennis on hard courts and artificial turf. Clay was a new challenge for me, but a few years ago I started to find my rhythm on clay, and actually my style of play is more suitable for playing on clay, and it worked last year. I haven't practiced much on clay this year, but I'm improving game by game. I'm getting more and more fond of red clay. ”

In May last year, Uchijima won the ITF W100 Women's Singles title with five consecutive wins in Madrid, and this year, after winning four consecutive matches to reach the quarterfinals of the WTA1000 Madrid Women's Singles, this is her ninth consecutive victory in Madrid. Moestsu Uchijima says Madrid is her favourite city: "At this time last year, I was playing an ITF tournament in Madrid and I could only watch the players play on TV. Now I'm in the same race, and it's great to be back in the race. I can't believe it, it's still in my dreams. ”

Moe Natsu Uchijima and Zhu Lin

Photo: Li Jianyi

Uchijima has been friends with Chinese players such as Zhu Lin and Wang Xinyu for many years, and has been paired to participate in doubles tournaments many times. In the China Tour, Uchijima Mengxia won the 2020CTA1000 Changsha Wangcheng Women's Singles runner-up (lost to Wang Yafan in the final), which coincidentally was also a clay event.

Next up, Uchijima will face 17th seed Svitolina in the quarter-finals, who defeated Sakkari 6-3, 6-4 in the fourth round. In the other Women's Singles fourth-round matches, top seed Sabalenka defeated Steens 6-2, 6-4 to set up a place in the semi-finals with Kostyuk, who eliminated Potapova 6-3, 6-2. Second seed Swiatek narrowly defeated Schneider 6-0, 6-7(3), 6-4 in the second half of the Women's Singles fourth-round rematch to face Keith 6-2, 6-3 after the Australian Open semi-finals.

WTA Madrid Women's Singles quarterfinals

[1] Sabalenka vs Kostyuk[24]

Moe Natsu Uchijima vs Svitolina [17]

[7] Andreeva vs Gauff[4]

[5] Keys vs Swiatek[2]

Ludo

Photo: Visual China

ATP1000 Madrid Masters, the fourth round of the first half and the third round of the second half of the tournament will be played on this match day. In the top half, top seed Zverev lost 5-7, 3-6 to 20th seed Serundolo; No.3 seed Fritz lost 5-7, 4-6 to No.14 seed Ruud and missed out on the quarter-finals. No.9 seed Dmitry Medvedev defeated No.31 seed Brandon Nakashima 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 to advance, while No.22 seed Mensik knocked out defending champion Rublev in the previous round 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals of the clay Masters for the first time in his career.

The first half of the ATP Madrid Masters quarterfinals

[20] Serundolo vs Mensick[22]

[14] Ruud vs Medvedev[9]

In the third round of the second half, No. 5 seed Draper won the retirement ceremony of No. 30 seed Berrettini in the first set and will face No. 11 seed Paul for a ticket to the semi-finals. Paul battled it out in three sets in the third round to beat 24th seed Khachanov 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 to advance. Sixth seed De Minaur defeated 29th seed Shapovalov 6-3, 7-6(3) to take on 10th seed Musetti, who beat 17th seed Tsitsipas 7-5, 7-6(3).

Results of the remaining races:

[15] Dimitrov 6-4/7-6(3) Fernley[Q]

[16] Tiafoe 6-3/6-3 Miller

Arnaldi 6-3, 6-4 Dzourg

[L] Diallo 2-6/6-4/6-4 Norrie

April 30 schedule

(Text and editor: Dato)