Iga Swiatek faced Mirra Andreeva for the first time in her career and it proved to be a very tricky match as she needed three sets to overcome the young prodigy at the 2024 Cincinnati Open.
Swiatek came into this match after a really solid win in her previous match. She struggled in her first match at the WTA 1000 event in Cincinnati but looked miles better in the second one.
Her quarter-final opponent from Russia, meanwhile, looked exceptionally strong, comfortably beating a couple of solid players, like Emma Navarro and Jasmine Paolini, to find herself in this spot.
Swiatek and Andreeva had never played before this match, and that's a shame because this match was fantastic. It's a fascinating matchup in general because one player plays super-aggressive tennis, and another plays chess.
Much of what Andreeva does is built upon anticipation. She doesn't have powerful shots, but she has very precise shots and thinks carefully during play. She's already one of the smartest players on the WTA Tour despite being one of the youngest and least experienced ones.
In the early goings of this match, the 17-year-old proved a little better. Starting slow has been common for Swiatek lately, and she paid a heavy price for that in this quarter-final match.
Andreeva took an early break and somehow managed to keep it for the rest of the set, winning it 6-4. The emphasis is truly on 'somehow' because Swiatek wasted many, many break points.
She had four break points in total to break back, but she didn't use any of them, which meant that she had to play three sets, or at least that was the ideal scenario after she lost the opening set of the match.
It wasn't a huge problem for Swiatek, but ideally, she would have liked to avoid that. On the other hand, being challenged like that could be good for her long-term.
After Andreeva took the opening set, Swiatek improved her play. She broke early in the second set to take an early 3-0 lead, which was ideal for her. Not only did she cut off any momentum of her opponent, but she also annulled that set advantage.
It's mostly because, for a couple of games by then, the World No. 1 player was able to win her service games easily. Andreeva wasn't able to push the Pole too much, so after she broke her, it was clear that she would be able to keep the advantage and win the second set.
That's exactly what happened, as Swiatek won it 6-3 to force the decider. The most important thing for the teenager is that she found her rhythm on serve a little bit, not allowing her opponent break points in the third set.
The first few games of the final set didn't separate the players, as both were able to hold serve rather comfortably. That's why winning a couple of games in the second set was important for Andreeva.
She found her rhythm a little, allowing her to fend off Swiatek for the first few games of the final set. After ten games of play, there was still no end in sight, with a tie-break looming.
It wouldn't come to that as Swiatek finally broke her opponent's serve at 5-5 to make it 6-5 and then hold her serve to win this epic clash 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, and reach the semi-finals of the 2024 Cincinnati Open.
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