Defending champion Iga Swiatek won her ninth straight match without much resistance, beating France’s Diane Parry 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinal round of the Cincinnati Open.
The No. 7 seed actually lost the first game of the match on her serve but then won the next four to take command of the opening set in Mason, Ohio. She similarly fell behind 1-0 in the second but rallied for a 4-1 lead and clinched the victory on her fourth match-point attempt.
The six-time Grand Slam champion from Poland was strong on her first serve, winning 71.1% of those points, and opportunistic on Parry’s second serve, winning 17 of 28 such points (60.7%).
With this victory, Swiatek has made at least the quarterfinal round for the seventh time in 12 tournaments she’s played this season.
“It’s always nice to hear that,” Swiatek said when informed of this statistic after the match. ” … It doesn’t matter if it’s a quarterfinal or a second round, I treat every match the same way. But I know my Wikipedia is going to look good. The key is to focus on being present, and that’s how you can get to those numbers.”
In order to return to the Cincinnati semifinals, Swiatek will have a tougher test in the next round against No. 2 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who beat No. 14 seed Russian Diana Shnaider 6-4, 6-4. It’ll be a rematch of last week’s National Bank Open in Toronto, which Swiatek won 6-2, 6-3.
No. 10 Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine turned the tides in a major way after a slow start in her 4-6, 6-0, 6-2 defeat of No. 5 Mirra Andreeva.
Kostyuk didn’t manage a single break-point chance in the first set but converted four of six over the final two sets. The win was her eighth of the season against a top-10 opponent, tied with Rybakina and Elina Svitolina for the most this season.
A pair of seeded Americans also advanced to the quarterfinals in the early portion of Wednesday’s competition. No. 3 Jessica Pegula needed just over two hours to come away with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 defeat of No. 15 Sorana Cirstea of Romania, while No. 9 Amanda Anisimova took care of No. 6 Czech Linda Noskova 6-1, 6-4 in just 68 minutes.
In evening action at Cincinnati, No. 1 seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus faces unseeded Czech Sara Bejlek, No. 4 Coco Gauff faces No. 22 Marie Bouskova of the Czech Republic and No. 20 Madison Keys takes on China’s Xiyu Wang.
–Field Level Media
