Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka to have a rematch of the Madrid final in the Rome final

Two weeks ago, the Top 2 players on the WTA rankings—No. 1 Iga Swiatek and No. 2 Aryna Sabalenka—battled it out in a thriller of a final in Madrid, with Swiatek prevailing, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (7).

And it didn’t take long for a rematch.

The two moved into the final of Rome on Thursday, with Swiatek beating Coco Gauff in the first semifinal, 6-4, 6-3, and Sabalenka beating Danielle Collins in the second semifinal, 7-5, 6-2.

And according to page 13 of the records section of the WTA's official media guide, this will be the first time since 2000 that the WTA No. 1 and No. 2 will have played each other twice in a two-week span.

The last time that happened was when then-No. 1 Martina Hingis and then-No. 2 Lindsay Davenport met in the Indian Wells and Miami finals in 2000. They split those meetings, with Davenport winning 10 straight games from 6-4, 4-2 down to defeat Hingis for the Indian Wells title, 4-6, 6-4, 6-0, but then Hingis getting her revenge in straight sets to take the Miami title, 6-3, 6-2.

Swiatek leads the head-to-head against Sabalenka, 7-3, which includes a 4-1 record on clay, with Sabalenka's only clay-court victory coming in last year's Madrid final, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

But their most recent meeting two weeks ago in this year’s Madrid final could easily have gone either way, with Sabalenka holding three match points before Swiatek snuck out the victory.

For Swiatek, the two meetings won’t be connected at all.

“Honestly, I don’t think it makes sense to think about these two matches as one continuing story because it’s a totally different tournament. Well, different week, as well—it’s not like it’s going to be the same," she said. “I’ll try to be in the present, not really think about Madrid. Obviously I need to analyze this match in terms of the tactics, but not too much as well, because it was pretty tight. I think we both could have done some things better.

“It’ll be a totally different story. I’ll just focus on being present.”

Sabalenka has used the Madrid final as fuel.

“You always look for new things, you always try to improve lots of stuff, especially after those kinds of matches like in Madrid,” she said. “You always try to find something else. You always try and find some stuff to improve where you can get better, so next time you’ll be able to finish the match. After Madrid, we worked a lot on a couple of things. We’ll see. We’ll see on Saturday if it’s going to help me or not, and we’ll move from there.

“I really have strong belief that I can get that win.”