After failing to do so the last couple of times, Aryna Sabalenka finally played a super solid match to down Iga Swiatek, booking the 2024 Cincinnati Open final in the process.
The storylines around this matchup were interesting because, on the one side, there was Sabalenka, who has been in North America for a while, and on the other side, there was Swiatek, who arrived only recently.
The Polish player has looked both great and vulnerable this week. Her match against Mirra Andreeva proved that she could be beaten, but she also had an amazing performance at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati, in which it looked like she never missed a beat.
The Belarusian, meanwhile, was beaten twice in the past two weeks by players who are not considered at the top of the pecking order. She has looked shaky and impressive at times; much of which has to do with the shoulder injury she carried around for a while.
Swiatek won the last few matches these two played, but they were played on clay. This was on a surface that likely suits the World No. 3 player better, and it certainly did in this match.
Sabalenka has always been a tricky matchup for the World No. 1; the Polish player never looked comfortable in this matchup. What won the Belarusian this match today was just playing better overall.
She was super aggressive and attacked Swiatek's second serve, utterly dominating those rallies. In the opening set, Sabalenka won all seven points on her opponent's second serve.
Swiatek couldn't really do that, as she tried, but without much success. Despite not hitting her serve that well, the third seed won most of the points on her serve without any issues. She got broken only once in that opening set.
That wasn't a problem because she broke Swiatek twice in that opening set and won it 6-3. She was the better player, certainly in the most crucial moments. A similar trend continued in the second set, as the two-time Australian Open winner once again did extremely well on Swiatek's second serve.
Sabalenka's brief inability to hit her first serve gave Swiatek a minor chance to break back early in the second, but she didn't. It was the latest instance of Sabalenka outplaying her rival in a crucial moment of the match, and that's what happened consistently in this match.
It is usually said that tennis matches come down to a few points and rallies, which certainly applied to this match, even though the scoreline says otherwise. The Belarusian consistently outperformed Swiatek in the most crucial rallies, which is why she won the match.
Another big feat from the Belarusian was avoiding double faults despite not having the best serving day. After making it 3-1 in the second set, Sabalenka broke Swiatek once more to take a 4-1 lead.
The Polish player looked quite average by Sabalenka, who was on fire. It was the second consecutive big match in which Swiatek looked bad after the loss against Qinwen Zheng at the Olympics.
The match was interrupted at 4-1 due to rain, which had already briefly stopped play twice. Luckily the break was brief as Sabalenka continued her momentum to take a 5-1 lead.
Swiatek could have lost the second set already 1-6, but she kept fighting for every single ball, saving nine match points in the process. Still, Sabalenka had just too big of a lead to lose it, winning the match 6-3, 6-3 to reach the 2024 Cincinnati Open final.
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