Swiatek and Andreeva face off for the first time

CINCINNATI — The quarterfinals are set at the Cincinnati Open, where a new champion will be crowned. World No.1 Iga Swiatek leads the last eight, along with No.3 Aryna Sabalenka and, fresh off her National Bank Open title, No.6 Jessica Pegula.

Cincinnati: Scores | Draws | Order of Play

In a week that has seen six Top 10 seeds bow out before the quarterfinal stage, which underdogs will seize their opportunities on Saturday?

We break down the quarterfinal match-ups.

Top Half

[1] Iga Swiatek vs. Mirra Andreeva

In one of her first interviews on the Hologic WTA Tour, Mirra Andreeva was asked how her game compared to her older sister, Erika, is also working her way on tour. Then 16, Mirra described herself as ‘Ons Jabeur’ and her sister as ‘Iga Swiatek’.

“Now it will be interesting if we will play against each other,” Mirra said then. “I really don’t know who will win.”

The sisters still haven’t had to face each other yet on tour but Mirra will get her first look at the real thing when she faces Swiatek for the first time.

“I, for now, don’t feel any stress,” Andreeva told WTA Insider after her third-round win over No.5 Jasmine Paolini. “Maybe tomorrow I will, or later in the day.

“But so far, I’m just super excited that finally I get the chance to play against her. I feel like she’s, of course, an unbelievable player. She’s won a major again this year and bronze medalist at the Olympics, so that kind of says something, that she’s a great player and she has a lot of confidence.”

Then, Andreeva smirked.

“But I feel, so do I,” she said. “I have also a little bit of confidence, playing good tennis here. So just super excited for what tomorrow will bring. And I hope this match is going to be entertaining.”

Of course, confidence can only take you so far. Swiatek extended her WTA 1000 win streak to 14 after defeating Marta Kostyuk in the third round. She comes into Cincinnati looking to win her fifth WTA 1000 of the season and shore up her confidence ahead of the US Open.

[3] Aryna Sabalenka vs. [10] Liudmila Samsonova

Sabalenka has quietly moved through the draw, posting straight-forward straight-set wins over Elisabetta Cocciaretto and Elina Svitolina. Quiet is what the former No.1 craves right now, as she works to regain the confidence and form that won her the first hard-court Slam of the season in Melbourne.

Sabalenka has not made a hard-court final since her Australian Open title defense. In the last two weeks, she lost to Marie Bouzkova in the Washington D.C. semifinals and Amanda Anisimova in the Toronto quarterfinals. But she’s a three-time semifinalist here in Cincinnati, where the lightning-quick hard courts should feed right into her game.

“Every week is a new tournament and you have to have a short memory,” Sabalenka said before the tournament. “That’s the thing which helps to keep moving, keep working hard and keep improving.

“Every loss is motivation for me to work harder, to improve things that didn’t work in the last match. I know that if you’re there and you’re fighting for every point and you’re truly giving everything you have in practices and matches, I know that you’re going to have your opportunities.”

She’ll have her work cut out for he against No.17 Samsonova, who came from a set down to defeat Elina Avanesyan in the third round. Samsonova holds the edge in their head-to-head, and defeated Sabalenka on North American hard courts last year in Montreal.

Bottom Half

[6] Jessica Pegula vs. Leylah Fernandez

Fresh off her Toronto title, Pegula is back in business on her favorite surface. And while many players have found Cincinnati’s courts and balls too quick for their ball-striking, Pegula has leveled up. She came through a double-day on Friday to secure wins over Karolina Muchova and Taylor Townsend.

“It seems like the movement, the fitness, the serve, everything has started to come together the last couple of weeks, which is really nice,” Pegula said. “Not perfect every day, but still battling through some tough matches, some tough conditions as well, different types of players.

“Everything has been a really good test and I’ve been able to take everything as a challenge and move through it pretty well.”

Will Pegula is rounding into form, Leylah Fernandez has made her second WTA 1000 quarterfinal of the year on pure grit. Ranked No.26, Fernandez paved her way through the draw by saving two match points against No.4 Elena Rybakina in the second round. She followed it up with a cleaner performance against Diana Shnaider, winning in straight sets in the third round.

“It gives me a lot of confidence, but I always had confidence that Ii was going to get through it,” Fernandez said. “I’m just happy that my game is starting to fall into place. Things are going well and I was happy with how I served today. Still, a couple double faults, but I was able to take advantage of my first-serve percentage. I see the improvements match-by-match.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Paula Badosa

Paula Badosa has her swagger back. After winning her first Hologic WTA Tour title in over two years at the Mubadala Citi DC Open two weeks ago, Badosa continues to storm back up the rankings as she aims to nestle herself back among the game’s elite. From the former No.2’s perspective, she’s outplaying her No.36 ranking by a fair margin.

“I had some goals, like for Australia, I would like to be seeded now, but now I want to be already [seeded] in US Open,” Badosa said. “But I always put these expectations. It’s part of me, and it’s part of that, I keep pushing myself, sometimes too much. That’s why I have my coach like to balance that.

“But yeah, of course, my goal is to be as soon as I can possible, to be back where I was before. I feel I belong there.”

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova is the surprise of the final eight. The 33-year-old had not won back-to-back matches since Indian Wells before this week. But nine years after her last Cincinnati quarterfinal appearance, Pavlyuchenkova knocked out two seeds and a former No.1 to earn her place. The 2021 French Open finalist knocked out 17th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia, wild card Caroline Wozniacki, and Olympic champion and World No.7 Zheng Qinwen in the third round.

This will be the second meeting of the season between Pavlyuchenkova and Badosa. The Spaniard took the first in straight sets at the Australian Open.