Simona Halep Shares Why She “Really Likes” to Watch Iga Swiatek Play on the Court

Iga Swiatek reached her 29th career final at the Cincinnati Open and defeated Jasmine Paolini to win the title.

Simona Halep Shares Why She “Really Likes” to Watch Iga Swiatek Play on the Court

Simona Halep and Iga Swiatek (via X/Wimbledon/The Tennis Letter)

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On Monday, Iga Swiatek won her second title of this season after winning the final of the Cincinnati Open. The former World No.1 earned her place in the final of the WTA 1000 event for the first time in her career after overcoming former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in straight sets.

The Polish star had gone through a very rough patch in her career in the second half of last season and at the start of 2025. Her struggles on the court saw her drop to World No.8 in the WTA rankings, but since the grass-court season, the 24-year-old has found her form on the court once again.

She reached her first final after a year at the Bad Homburg Open and then claimed her sixth Grand Slam at the Wimbledon Championship after beating Amanda Anisimova. Swiatek brushed the American star aside 6-0, 6-0 to win her first title on the grass court. Former champion Simona Halep was in attendance at Center Court to watch the match.

During her interview with Antena Sport, Halep reflected on Swiatek’s performance against Anisimova. The former World No.1 revealed that the Pole ace produced a masterclass performance on the court that made her realize some things that she never knew during her time as a professional player.

I don’t watch much tennis, but from time to time, I do tune in to matches. I really like Swiatek because she’s a complete player. I watched the Wimbledon final since I was in London to attend the match. She has excellent positioning and moves very well. I’m analyzing things I never used to analyze when I was a player. I found her strong. Before, if you’d asked me to talk about it, I wouldn’t have noticed all this.

Swiatek kicked off her North America hard-court campaign at the Canadian Open, reaching the fourth round before losing to Clara Tauson in the round of 16. She continued with the momentum at the Cincinnati Open, beating Anastasia Potapova, Sorana Cirstea before overcoming Anna Kalinskaya all in straight sets.

On Sunday (August 17), she defeated Rybakina 7-5, 6-3 to reach the Cincinnati final. The victory was her 48th of the season, and she’s now won her first WTA 1000 final since the Italian Open last year. She beat Italy’s Jasmine Paolini 7-5, 6-4 in the final, who had earlier overcome Veronika Kudermetova in three sets in their semi-final clash.

Iga Swiatek on how she prepared ahead of her clash with Jasmine Paolini at Cincinnati

Swiatek beat Paolini for the sixth time in her career at the Cincinnati Open final. The former now leads 6-0 in their head-to-head record.

Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini
Iga Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini (Image via X/The Tennis Letter, Jasmine Paolini)

Ahead of their final clash, Swiatek revealed that she’s not going to focus on her opponent rather will prepare tactically and work on some aspects of her game.

Jasmine, she also plays fast, but with a lot of spin, and she has a lot of variety in terms of going to the net as well. I think I’m gonna have to prepare tactically, but honestly, I’m just gonna kind of focus on myself.

Swiatek did not drop a set at the Cincinnati Open and has (so far) lost only five of her 29 tournament finals in her career. Her last final loss was against Jessica Pegula at the Bad Homburg Open.

Also read: (Video) Iga Swiatek Gets Into an Awkward Confrontation With Interviewer After Reaching Cincinnati Open Final