Swiatek, Eala flex their Spanish skills after Madrid wins

Iga Swiatek is always striving to become more well-rounded, from her dedication to discovering new novels to her quest to improve in the kitchen.

You can also add mastery of the Spanish language to the list.

Well, not quite mastery ... but she's getting better.

After her dominant 6-1, 6-2 win over Daria Snigur at the Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday, the World No. 4 spoke a bit of Spanish to the crowd -- "Hola, cómo estás?" -- and said she's been experimenting with it in social settings this week. She had some success, but carrying on a conversation proved challenging.

"This week I was trying to speak Spanish a little bit," said Swiatek, who learned some Spanish in high school. "For example, ordering some food in Spanish, it ended up like, 'Dos bocadillos, por favor.' And the people at the restaurant started talking Spanish to me, and I'm like, 'OK, that’s all I know, so let’s please switch to English."

Swiatek hopes to continue improving, and having a Spanish coach in Francisco Roig should certainly help.

One WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz player who doesn't need as much work with her Spanish is Alexandra Eala, who also spoke the native language following her 6-3, 6-3 win over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova on Wednesday.

Certainly Eala has a leg up, as she's spent nearly eight years in Spain and trained at the Rafa Nadal Academy.

"I love Madrid -- it's an amazing tournament," Eala said in English following her first-round win.

The she flipped to Spanish and beautifully said, among other things, "Each time I come here, I feel comfortable, I feel at home." 

Swiatek certainly feels at home too, as a former champion here. She'll play either 31st seed Ann Li or Alycia Parks in the third round.

Eala, who won her first-round doubles match with Zeynep Sonmez on Thursday, will play 19th seed Elise Mertens in the second round on Friday.