Sabalenka topples Swiatek to make first Cincinnati final; faces Pegula

CINCINNATI — World No.3 Aryna Sabalenka defeated No.1 Iga Swiatek 6-3, 6-3 in the Cincinnati Open semifinals on Sunday.

Sabalenka will face No.6 Jessica Pegula in Monday’s final. Victory would net Sabalenka her 15th Hologic WTA Tour title and first since her successful defense at the Australian Open in January.

Cincinnati: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

Into her fifth final of the season, Sabalenka will overtake Coco Gauff to return to No.2 on the PIF WTA Rankings on Tuesday. She is projected to seeded No.2 at the US Open.

Sabalenka will also pass Elena Rybakina to move to No.2 on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard behind Swiatek, who has already secured qualification for the season-ending event.

Heading into Sunday, Sabalenka had lost her first three semifinal appearances in Cincinnati. She made her first final four in 2018 (l. Halep) and made back-to-back semifinals in 2022 (l. Garcia) and 2023 (l. Muchova). By earning her fourth win over Swiatek and fifth over a reigning No.1, Sabalenka will play her ninth WTA 1000 final on Monday.

In their third clash of the season and first on hard court, Sabalenka kept the points short and snappy with a clinical serve and return performance. Swiatek is the tour leader in both service and return games won, but struggled to find a way through on both metrics on Sunday. Sabalenka served at just 52 percent but won 67 percent of her first serves and 53 percent of her second.

“I wasn’t over-rushing things. I was trusting myself a lot, and I wasn’t trying to over-hit the ball,” Sabalenka said. “I was just trying to stay there, put as much pressure as I can on her, and I was really focused on my serve.”

In contrast, Swiatek managed to win just 20 percent of her second-serve points (6 of 30). Sabalenka broke Swiatek five times while giving Swiatek a look at just two break points of her own.

Swiatek mounted one final stand, saving a total of nine match points, seven against her own serve, to close the gap from 5-1 down. But Sabalenka broke serve for a fifth and final time to seal the 1-hour and 48-minute win.

“Especially when someone leads against you 8-3 you kind of feel like, ‘Okay, I gotta, I gotta keep it interesting,'” Sabalenka said. “I gotta get my win so it’s interesting for people to watch us play. So yeah, of course, I wanted this win badly.”

The victory snapped a three-match losing streak to Swiatek and avenged her back-to-back WTA 1000 final losses in Madrid and Rome, closing the gap in the head-to-head to 8-4. Three of Sabalenka’s four wins have come on hard court.

“I think Aryna was just playing better today and using her advantages,” Swiatek said, “and I didn’t serve well at the beginning, which kind of threw me off my rhythm. For sure, it wasn’t a good performance for me.

“[Overall in the tournament] I played much better than I expected, honestly, especially on this surface. So I’m happy with the result anyway, and already kind of focusing on what I need to do to feel even better in New York. And we’ll work on stuff for sure.”