Iga Swiatek Credits Court Speed for Reaching her First Cincinnati Open Final

Iga Swiatek to face Jasmine Paolini for the sixth time on tour in the final of the Cincinnati Open.

Iga Swiatek Credits Court Speed for Reaching her First Cincinnati Open Final

Iga Swiatek (via X/The Tennis Letter)

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Iga Swiatek believes the courts used at the 2025 Cincinnati Open are part of the reason she’s in the final for the first time in her career. On several occasions, the former World No.1 has tried to reach the championship match but always failed to do so. In fact, for the past two years, she fell to Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final of 2023 and 2024, respectively.

Swiatek isn’t the only player to notice the change in speed of the Cincinnati Open. After the second round in the men’s draw, Alexander Zverev and Carlos Alcaraz revealed that the courts were extremely slow and it was usually a fast hard court tournament. However, the courts being slower than previous years was because of the $260 million renovation that the tournament underwent.

The renovation of the campus and courts was needed to take in 96 singles players, an increase from the usual 56 singles players, after the tournament format was stretched from a 7-day event to a 12-day event.

Nonetheless, Swiatek claimed her spot at the WTA 1000 event final for the first time after beating Elena Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 in the semi-finals on Sunday (August 17). The Wimbledon champion, who is yet to drop a set at the tournament also secured her place in the WTA Finals following the victory and will climb to World No.2 if she eventually wins the title.

During her post-match press conference at the Cincinnati Open, she admitted that the court speed had been a problem for her in previous years. But with the change to a slower surface, she has quickly adjusted to it, and that has made a big impact in her game at the WTA 1000 tournament:

I think the surface was pretty crazy, and now it’s something that you can play tennis on. So now it’s a bit slower, and it makes more sense. And yeah, also this year, I feel like I’m just progressing match by match. In past years, I feel like the matches have been tough, like from the beginning. So I just feel a bit different.

Swiatek has enjoyed an outstanding week at the Cincinnati Open despite arriving at the tournament on the back of a round of 16 finish in Montreal. In Ohio, she has defeated Anastasia Potapova, Sorana Cirstea, and Anna Kalinskaya. The World No.3 also benefited from Marta Kostyuk’s withdrawal in the third round of the tournament.

Iga Swiatek reveals how she overcame Elena Rybakina in the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open

Iga Swiatek found herself 3-5 (15-30) down in the first set against Elena Rybakina in Cincinnati. But she rallied back into the tie and claimed the set 7-5, which was the turning point of the match. She then led the second set comfortably, and despite failing to end the match at 5-2, she claimed a victory of 7-5 and 6-3 in an hour and 38 minutes.

Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek (via X/The Tennis Letter)
Elena Rybakina and Iga Swiatek (via X/The Tennis Letter)

She revealed during her on-court interview that she was happy with her performance during the hard-fought victory. The Polish star added that the major reason behind her win was her good serves:

It was a very tough match. At first, the level was quite crazy. We were playing so fast that sometimes we couldn’t even reach the second ball. I was there to play with intensity and good quality. I’m very happy with my performance. I served very well, which helped me a lot, and I wouldn’t change anything from today’s match.

Swiatek will face Jasmine Paolini in the final of the Cincinnati Open. She leads the Italian star 5-0 in their head-to-head record on tour. She’s now closing in on winning her 11th WTA 1000 title and first since the Italian Open last year. If she does beat Paolini, it will be her 24th career tour-level title.