By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Wednesday August 14, 2024
After squandering five match points in the second set, Iga Swiatek took care of business in the third to win in Cincinnati.
Photo Source: TTV
Some victories are more complicated than others.
Wednesday night, for World No.1 Iga Swiatek, was one of those complicated nights, but she lives to tell…
The World No.1 stumbled in the middle set of her summer hard court swing debut, but rebounded in time to take out France’s Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-2 on Wednesday at the Cincinnati Open.
“It wasn’t easy,” Swiatek admitted after her two hour and 13-minute roller coaster ride. “Varvara started playing more freedom, knowing that she had nothing to lose and I kind of backed down.”
Swiatek, a semifinalist last year in Cincinnati, will face 15th-seeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the round of 16.
Kostyuk got past Lulu Sun of New Zealand on Wednesday 6-3, 7-5.
Swiatek temporarily lost the plot as Gracheva worked to turnaround the match, and became too passive as the second set wore down. But her tailspin was short-lived. In the third set she turned her game back on and won 60 percent of her return points to finish off the 69th-ranked French qualifier.
“Honestly I knew I had the game to win it. I had five match points,” she said. “It was my fault that I didn’t close it, but it happens. I didn’t want to have any regrets so I just kind of looked forward.”
Swiatek improves to 51-6 on the season, and 23-3 on hard courts. The 2022 US Open champion is bidding for her sixt title of the season in Cincinnati, after claiming hardware at Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid, Rome and Roland-Garros.
In other action on Wednesday in Cincy, 11th-seeded Emma Navarro was taken out by Mirra Andreeva, 6-2, 6-2, while Karolina Muchova defeated Dayana Yastremska 7-6(6), 6-2 to set a second-round clash with Jessica Pegula, who is fresh off winning the title in Toronto.