Swiatek recovers to beat Wimbledon champion Vondrusova for semi-final spot in Cincinnati

World No 1 Iga Swiatek recovered om a slow start as she beat Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova 7-6 (3), 6-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Western and Southern Open at the Linder Tennis Family Center in Cincinnati on Friday.

Swiatek was broken early as she fell behind and Vondrousova, who won her first grand slam title at Wimbledon last month, led 5-3 in the first set.

The turning point came at 3-5, 15-30 when Swiatek was lucky to see a net cord fall the other side of the court and from that moment on, the momentum turned. She took the tiebreak 7-1, then ripped through the second set to set up a semi-final against either Italian qualifier Jasmine Paolini or American Coco Gauff, the No 7 seed.

Swiatek: “Happy with my performance”

“I’m really happy with my performance,” Swiatek said. “It wasn’t easy to adjust to her spin, she’s a lefty, she was really hurting me.

“I was just much more focused after the first set and I think I kind of knew what to do.”

Swiatek 🤝 semifinals @iga_swiatek defeats Vondrousova to advance to her first semi in Cincy! #Cincytennis pic.twitter.com/INCUB5PnBP

— wta (@WTA) August 18, 2023

The 22-year-old Pole defeated American wildcard Danielle Collins (6-1, 6-0) and Chinese Qinwen Zheng (3-6, 6-1, 6-1) ahead of her victory.

Earlier in the tournament, Vondrousova, ranked No 10, won against Katerina Siniakova (7-5, 6-4), Russian Anastasia Potapova (6-4, 6-2) and American Sloane Stephens (7-5, 6-3).

Cincinnati WTA 1000, other quarter-finals results (Linder Tennis Family Center, hard, USD 2.788.468, most recent results first):

• Ons Jabeur vs. Aryna Sabalenka
• Jasmine Paolini vs. Coco Gauff
• Karolina Muchova vs. Marie Bouzkova