No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek of Poland concluded a dominant week at the Cincinnati Open by defeating No. 7 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy 7-5, 6-4 to win the WTA 1000 title on Monday in Mason, Ohio.
Swiatek, 24, improved to 11-2 all-time in 1000-level finals and won her first such title of the year, a strong follow-up to her victory at Wimbledon last month.
She did not drop a set all tournament across five matches (she did not play in the Round of 32, advancing via walkover when her opponent withdrew). Swiatek swept past No. 28 seed Anna Kalinskaya of Russia and No. 9 Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals and semifinals to set up her date with Paolini.
Paolini grabbed a 3-0 lead to start the match, only for Swiatek to rattle off five games in a row. Paolini pushed it to 5-5 before Swiatek broke the Italian’s serve yet again en route to the set victory.
Paolini had the second set knotted at 3-3, but Swiatek broke her on the next game as she took three of the final four games.
Swiatek showed off her all-around game on Monday, not only out-acing Paolini 9-0 but also winning half her return points, saving 6 of 10 break points and going 6-for-6 when she had a chance to break Paolini’s serve.
Paolini, 29, was seeking her second WTA 1000 title of the season to go with her triumph at the Italian Open.
Tennis in the Land
Top seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia saved 7 of 9 break points as she took down Caroline Dolehide 6-4, 7-6 (2) in first-round action in Cleveland.
Up 5-2 in the second set, Dolehide had chances to claim the set in each of the next three games but failed to do so. The set ultimately went to a tiebreaker in which Samsonova won five of the first six points to pull away.
No. 2 seed Xinyu Wang of China overcame a lost tiebreaker to defeat Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-2, and No. 8 seed Hailey Baptiste scored a 6-2, 7-6 (2) win on home soil against Romania’s Elena-Gabriela Ruse.
Meanwhile, Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann managed a 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 upset of French fifth seed Lois Boisson. That was already the fourth-seeded player to be upset in the opening round, following No. 3 Maya Joint of Australia, No. 4 Anastasia Potapova of Russia and No. 6 Sonay Kartal of Great Britain exiting Sunday.
Other winners Monday included seventh-seeded Katie Boulter of Great Britain, Romania’s Sorana Cirstea, France’s Elsa Jacquemot, Australia’s Talia Gibson, Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic and Chian’s Yafan Wang.
Abierto GNP Seguros
Germany’s Tatjana Maria absorbed her opponent’s eight aces and held on for a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Hungary’s Anna Bondar in the first round at Monterrey, Mexico.
Russia’s Kamilla Rakhimova also advanced with a 6-4, 7-5 result against Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Fifth seed Elise Mertens of Belgium converted 5 of 8 break point chances and knocked off Russia’s Anna Blinkova, 6-4, 6-3.
Croatia’s Donna Vekic and the Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova also advanced. In the final match of the night, seventh-seeded Canadian Leylah Fernandez topped Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian 6-3, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
