Iga Swiatek continues impressive form by breezing into Madrid Open semifinals

The world number one laid down another marker ahead of her French Open title defence later this month with a 6-0 6-3 win in 69 minutes on Wednesday.

It took Swiatek's victory streak to eight matches and sets up a last-four battle with Veronika Kudermetova, who ousted defending champion Jessica Pegula.

After triumphing at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart two weeks ago, the three-time grand-slam winner was unsure of what condition she would be in ahead of the Masters event in Madrid.

"I feel like I'm playing better and better every day," Swiatek said on-court.

"This is pretty great, because I didn't know if that was going to be possible at the beginning of the tournament. But I was patient and I was hoping to get that feeling and today was for sure a good day."

Kudermetova will face Swiatek next after she came through a tough battle with third seed Pegula before she won 6-4 0-6 6-4.

The 12th seed recovered from a second set bagel that lasted only 22 minutes and where she made 15 unforced errors to qualify for her first ever WTA 1000 tournament semi-final.

Elsewhere, in France Elina Svitolina continued her tennis comeback after giving birth in October with victory over Ysaline Bonaventure in three sets to reach the quarter-finals of the Saint Malo Open.

Former Wimbledon semi-finalist Svitolina only returned to action in March but won 2-6 6-4 7-6(5) against the fourth seed to make it back-to-back wins.