Iga Swiatek Advances In Cincinnati After Marta Kostyuk Withdraws

Iga Swiatek advanced to the fourth round of the 2025 Cincinnati Open after Marta Kostyuk withdrew from the WTA 1000 tournament.

Being among seeded players comes with many benefits, including the ability to reach late stages of tennis tournaments without having to play a lot. That's what has happened to Iga Swiatek before, and it happened again in Cincinnati.

The Polish player came to Cincinnati after losing in the fourth round of the Canadian Open in Montreal. She was beaten by Clara Tauson, marking her first loss since her incredible run to the Wimbledon title.

In Cincinnati, Swiatek started with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Anastasia Potapova, reaching the third round of the tournament. The reason why the six-time Grand Slam champion reached the third round with only one win is that she had a first-round bye, like all seeded players.

In the third round, the WTA World No. 3 player was supposed to take on fellow seed Marta Kostyuk. The Ukrainian beat Tatjana Maria in the first round in Cincinnati, but that win came only four days after she was forced to retire from her quarter-final match against Elena Rybakina in Montreal.

Although Kostyuk was able to beat Maria, she probably felt like it wouldn't make much sense to stress her injured wrist ahead of the US Open, especially against Swiatek, whom she had never managed to win a set against. After assessing her situation, Kostyuk withdrew from the tournament.

For Swiatek, that means reaching the fourth round of the WTA 1000 tournament while having to play only one match. She played her match on Saturday and won't have to return to the tennis courts until Wednesday.

Although many tennis players prefer playing time instead of practice time at events, with an already packed schedule, Swiatek will certainly appreciate having a few days off, especially after demanding two weeks at Wimbledon.

On top of that, this pause will give her more time to properly prepare for the US Open. She has won the tournament before, and also thanks to her win at Wimbledon, Swiatek will be among the favorites to win in New York this year.

She will get to play at least one more match in Cincinnati before moving to Flushing Meadows. The third seed will now await the winner of the match between Sorana Cirstea and Yue Yuan, which means she will be the favorite to reach the quarter-finals.

Should Swiatek beat Cirstea or Yuan, she could meet in the rematch of her Wimbledon final against Amanda Anisimova. The American is the fifth seed in Cincinnati, but she first has to beat Anna Kalinskaya and then possibly Ekaterina Alexandrova to set up a meeting with Swiatek.