Reigning world number one, Iga Swiatek added another win at the 2024 Cincinnati Open, beating the always-tricky Marta Kostyuk in two relatively simple sets.
Swiatek's last event before coming to Cincinnati was two weeks ago when she played in the bronze medal match at the Paris Olympics. She defeated Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova of Slovakia to win the bronze medal, which proved an unremarkable consolation prize.
She admitted getting a medal was a nice feeling, but the one she wanted to win was gold, and Qinwen Zheng crushed those dreams. Her first match back wasn't clean, as Varvara Gracheva pushed her to three sets.
It was an interesting match for Swiatek, who showed some hard-court rust. She last stood on a hard court months ago at the Miami Open, so getting used to these conditions took her some time.
Those struggles happened in the match against Gracheva, and while she was expected to do better in the next match, a few would be surprised if Kostyuk gave her problems.
The Ukrainian has been playing at a solid level for much of this year, and she's gotten rid of her past inconsistency demons. Unfortunately, for her to give Swiatek trouble, she had to be very consistent, and she couldn't do that in this match.
She broke first in this match, which teased an exciting match, but quickly, Swiatek was able to establish full control. She broke back immediately, and a few games after that, she was already up 4-2 in the opening set.
She won that opening set 6-2, thanks to Kostyuk just not being sharp enough. The Ukrainian loves to play aggressive tennis, and she's not afraid to go for the big swing.
The approach is not an issue and is actually quite advisable against the World No. 1, but the execution needs to be perfect. Kostyuk didn't have that in this match, and it was evident after just a few games.
The second set of this third-round Cincinnati Open match didn't bring anything different. Kostyuk continued to play the only way she knew how to play but with no results.
Swiatek broke immediately at the start of the second set, confirming the break for a 3-0 lead. The Polish player looked better than in the previous match, but Kostyuk disappointed with her level as well.
This wasn't close to her best level, and it needed to be for her to stand any chance. She did far better the first time she played Swiatek, back in 2021 at the French Open, when the Polish player needed 94 minutes to beat her 6-3, 6-4.
This match looked closer to the Indian Wells match earlier this year when Swiatek won 6-2, 6-1 in a little over an hour. This time, it was only 47 minutes when the score showed 6-2, 3-0 for Swiatek.
The Ukranian could stabilize slightly after that, but she never got close to turning around the match. The final score ended up being 6-2, 6-3 for Swiatek, who is still searching for an under 60-minute win against Kostyuk, as this match took her 71 minutes to win and reach the Cincinnati Open quarter-finals.
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