CINCINNATI, Ohio — World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a winning return to the hard courts at the Cincinnati Open as former US Open finallist Leylah Fernandez stunned Elena Rybakina 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
In her first match since winning a silver medal in doubles at the Paris Olympics, 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva scored a 6-2, 6-2 upset of No.11 seed Emma Navarro.
Playing her first match since winning a bronze medal for Poland at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Swiatek held off Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-2 in her tournament opener.
“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from like the slowest surface [at Roland Garros] to the fastest surface,” Swiatek said according to wtatennis.com.
“But that’s why I’m still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results.”
Swiatek comes into Cincinnati looking to win her 11th WTA 1000 title of her career and fifth WTA 1000 of this season alone.
Her 10 WTA 1000 titles are tied for second-most since the tournament’s introduction in 2009, level with Victoria Azarenka and behind only Serena Williams’ 13.
Swiatek has captured four of the six WTA 1000 tournaments so far this season, winning Doha and Indian Wells on hard court and Madrid and Rome on clay.
With her third straight Roland Garros title in May, the 23-year-old Pole has already secured her spot at the WTA Finals Riyadh, where she is the defending champion.
Swiatek improved to 2-0 against Gracheva, with both meetings taking place on hard court. After Swiatek slammed the door in the first game with back-to-back aces to hold, she won the next six games before Gracheva held to 1-1 in the second set. Gracheva won just eight points in the opening set.
Swiatek led 5-2 in the second set and held four match points to break Gracheva for a 50-minute win. But the French qualifier saved them all and then broke Swiatek at love to put the second set back on serve. With Swiatek’s losing the feel on her forehand, Gracheva stayed steady and leveled the set at 5-5.
Gracheva saved a fifth match point to hold and force the tiebreak. There, Swiatek again built a slight lead but could not close out the win. From 4-2 up, she lost four consecutive points to help Gracheva close out a remarkable second-set turnaround, with the Frenchwoman converting on her fifth set point.
Swiatek reset quickly to break Gracheva three times in the final set to end the 55th-ranked Frenchwoman’s upset bid. Over 80 minutes after seeing her first match point, Swiatek converted on her sixth to secure the win after 2 hours and 11 minutes.
“Well, for sure, it wasn’t easy, but I’m happy that I could have 6-0, 5-2 in my first match on hard court,” Swiatek said after the match.
“But for sure, Varvara was fighting and, and, yeah, I wasn’t able to close in second set, but I’m happy that I could figure it out in the third and start playing the same kind of game as at the beginning of the match.”
Swiatek finished the match with 41 winners to Gracheva’s nine, while hitting 30 unforced errors to 16. She is now 21-0 this season against opponents ranked outside the Top 50.
Fernandez upsets Rybakina
Fernandez halted Rybakina’s return to action in the second round of the Cincinnati Open, triumphing 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-4 from double match point down in the second set.
Rybakina was playing her first match since falling in the Wimbledon semifinals to eventual champion Barbora Krejcikova.
Acute bronchitis had forced the Kazakhstani to withdraw from both the Paris Olympic Games and last week’s WTA 1000 event in Toronto, and her rust showed throughout in the form of 17 double faults. Two of those came on both of her match points as she served at 6-5 in the second set.
Fernandez has been enjoying a resurgent season, and returned to the Top 30 in June after an absence of nearly two years.
The Canadian took advantage to seal her fifth career Top 5 win, and first since she knocked out three Top 5 opponents to reach the 2021 US Open final.
The 21-year-old was coming off a disappointing second-round loss to Ashlyn Krueger in her home event of Toronto last week, and had needed to come from a set and a break down to escape Yuan Yue in her Cincinnati opener.
But she demonstrated in the first game that she was eager to take on the challenge of Rybakina, smacking two winners to break immediately.
Like Rybakina, Fernandez also struggled for consistency throughout. She fired 26 winners, but also committed 27 unforced errors — including 13 double faults of her own. In the second set, they seemed to have been her undoing when she threw in two in a row to drop serve at 5-3.
Ultimately, Fernandez pulled through due to her superior match management. After Rybakina had squandered her two match points, Fernandez pounced with two clean winners to break back, then dominated the ensuing tiebreak.
In the decider, Rybakina managed to serve her way out of her first troublesome service game, escaping triple break point serving at 2-3. But Fernandez — who did not face a break point herself in the third set — was undaunted, breaking to love at her next opportunity for 4-3.
The former Wimbledon champion never found her groove in the match; her 17 double faults were part of a total of 50 unforced errors, frequently wild misses off routine rally balls. She won just 35 per cent of the points behind her second serve.
Andreeva beats Navarro
The 17-year-old Mirra Andreeva scored a 6-2, 6-2 defeated of No.11 seed Emma Navarro at the Cincinnati Open.
In a 65-minute masterclass, Andreeva was dominant, breaking Navarro’s serve four times and hitting 16 winners to the American’s five.
Navarro also hit 18 unforced errors in the loss, just three days after she was beaten by Amanda Anisimova in her first WTA 1000 semi-final in Toronto.
“I knew that it was going to be a very hard match. She’s had an amazing year so far, so I was just trying to go on court and do my best and to play because I had nothing to lose,” Andreeva said afterwards.
“I just went out there, tried to show my best level, and tried to win a match, and I think I did it.”
Andreeva won 82 per cent of her first-serve points, and never lost serve. She saved the only break point she faced serving ahead 3-2 in the first set. It was the only game in the match in which she was pushed to deuce.
“I’m very happy that I didn’t feel as nervous as I thought I would. I think my serve was great today, and I hope it’s going to stay the same for this US swing,” Andreeva continued.
“It was really, really hot, and there’s no shade on court … I’m really happy with how I played.”
World No.24 Andreeva, who won her first Hologic WTA Tour singles title a little over weeks ago at the clay-court WTA 250 in Iasi, Romania, now owns 10 wins over Top 20 players in her young career. But she wasn’t the only player to make a statement on Day 2 in Cincinnati. Other victors included:
