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World No.1 Sabalenka, who beat Ash Barty to this title in 2021 when the Austraian was top of the rankings, had to push hard to keep Gauff at bay in the second set as the America went in search of her first WTA Tour title of the year.

Indeed Gauff had a set point at 5-4 to generate a deciding set, but Sabalenka shut down any chance of that  as she held serve and closed out a tiebreak that would prove to be decisive.

"I'm just super excited every time to come to Madrid to play on this beautiful court," Sabalenka said after her win.

"I don't know, I just love this court, I love the support here, I think that's the secret."

Victory marked Sabalenka's 20th WTA Tour singles title.

She also equalled the most Madrid Open women's singles titles, joining Petra Kvitova, who won in 2011, 2015 and 2018.

"I've been working really hard and improving my game on bringing variety into my game," Sabalenka said.

"I think that's the biggest key in most of the matches right now.

"I'm super happy that we were able to improve my game in, honestly, in everything, the movement, my touch game is much better right now.

It's kind of like trying to come to the net, I'm not sure if it's really successful so far, but I'm trying."