Swiatek Outplays Rybakina to Secure First Cincinnati Final
Four-time Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek of Poland squared off against Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan this afternoon in the first half of the Cincinnati Open Masters 1000 semi-finals bracket. They’ve met a total of nine times throughout their careers, and Rybakina has been the victor in the last three. Swiatek serves to open the match. The Polish claybug posed a strong start, holding at 40-15. A service game of first serves aided her in keeping short points, where she remained on top, never giving her opponent the chance to dictate the pace or speed, which she is known for. In the second game, Rybakina serving at 1-0; she is unfazed by Swiatek’s surprising opening and comes out doing what she’s known best for. Massive swings on all ends: forehands, backhands, and especially her first serves, even an ace to hold.
At 1-1, Swiatek serves, trying to keep a strong game, utilizing all angles to keep Elena stretched thin. Hurts herself once with a double fault early on, but she remains resilient. Swiatek is light on her feet but is following through on all her shots, driving deep and cracking hard to keep Rybakina destabilized. It is a smart and effective strategy, as it doesn’t allow Elena to get there and punish the ball the way we all know her to be capable of. Rybakina seems to be keeping her cool so far with Swiatek’s strategy, but some errors are popping up when she does find herself near the ball.
2-1, Rybakina serves, and her service game is a picture of perfection; she has it figured out. No second serves are to be seen, and she shares it evenly between aces and forehand winners with whatever Iga can manage to get her hands on. At 2-2, Swiatek also wants to show that she can hold at love and keep her hold-lead at that. Her first service percentage is dropping, but her strategy is keeping her in a good place and seemingly forcing Rybakina into some wild errors. Despite there being a few more rallies on her service hold than Rybakina’s, Swiatek serves out a beautiful out-wide ace to hold.
Rybakina serves at 3-2. The power Swiatek came out of the match swinging with has waned considerably now, and that level of might is Rybakina’s normal. The game’s rhythm has changed considerably now, as for the first time, lengthy rallies have made an appearance in the match. Rybakina races ahead 40-0 again, her comfort point, but she works hard for it, Swiatek scraping every inch of the court as her opponent plasters impossible shots from every angle. She’s made to toil for it, but Ryabakina secures her hold to even the score.
3-3 is a treacherous, tender place to be in a first set, and the two women played it as such. Rybakina pushes a little more on the gas now, her intent to break Swiatek’s unbroken serve, and she fights it valiantly. No end of the court is left untouched, not by Swiatek’s shoes and not by Rybakina’s blistering shots. Despite the long-drawn rallies with little reaction time by both ends, Rybakina wrests the break from Swiatek’s hands. At 4-3, there is an even cooler stride in Rybakina’s already confident step. Her serves are still strong and hitting her mark, and her shots have not lost their heaviness. Swiatek still fights for every point, eating off her errors, but Rybakina once again closes out her serve with a cool ace to go up 5-3.
Swiatek is ever-ready on her feet, hungry and stretching to her body’s every limit for Rybakina’s insane angles, particularly her down-the-line backhand, which sends her into a split for her effort. She is still unsuccessful in getting it, but she fights on. Her coach, Wim Fissette’s communications are a constant throughout the set so far, and they must be a help, as she is able to still pull aces to pull a hold while serving to remain in the set 5-3. Rybakina goes down 40-15 on her 1st attempt to serve out the match, a host of unforced and reckless errors dragging her to it. Swiatek chasing her every ball regardless of the strength seems to frustrate her plenty, plenty enough to miss some first serves and unceremoniously dump forehands into the bottom of the net. Swiatek is triumphant in breaking her and in evening the score to 5-5, two set chances saved.
It’s clear after going down two games earlier that Swiatek’s strategy has changed from matching Rybakina might for might to going for a more consistency-focused one. It is rewarding her plenty, both in increasing her confidence for staying true to her game and in frustrating her into errors. Enough errors for her to turn the tide of the game to hold 6-5, now in position to break a now shaky Rybakina for the set. Swiatek has won the last 16 points, and it seems to be a trend to continue. Ryabakina opens up missing her first serves, not boding well for her as she goes down 40-15 with little reason other than unforced errors. Another wild missed first serve shows her anxiety, and Swiatek is bouncing on her feet, pouncing on the second serve only a moment later, punishingly, leaving Rybakina stumbling without a response, and without a first set, losing it 7-5. Swiatek returned to her chair with an iron focus, while Rybakina stormed to her chair to grab her bag to head for a set bathroom break, taking a brief moment to voice her displeasure with the chair umpire.
Swiatek has an air of confidence from winning the first set in such a resounding manner and likely from being able to see her strategies frustrating Ryabkina. She’s in control of all the points, even with half of the power Rybakina has, but the effects are the same; she is in one place dictating the pace and points while her opponent is left scrambling. Closed with an ace. Rybakina’s first service game in the second set is a double fault, and the point following is yet another forehand into the base of the net. She finds a way to hold, but the intensity is a far cry from what it was before, muted and careful rather than explosive and angled. Swiatek returns to serve at 1-1, the match clock only now hitting an hour, and her energy is off the charts still. She’s making her first serves, and Ryabakina can only manage weak, short court returns for Swiatek to shut it down. Swiatek holds at love once again.
Ryabakina, serving at 2-1, is visibly frustrated, and things that were working smoothly like butter are simply not functioning as before. First serves are a thing of the past, backhand winners that wowed the crowd are constantly wide of their mark, and even simple rally balls are being missed. She manages to go up to a hold point at 40-30, and then even at Advantage, but Swiatek chases her relentlessly each time and refuses her the opportunity. Swaitek breaks Ryabakina again, leaving her looking exhausted and limping slightly.
Swiatek looks to be in the zone entirely, having no trouble quickly holding again at love; Rybakina is barely able to put up a fight. At 4-1, Rybakina would have to do a tremendous overhaul to turn things around into turn things back to her favor. She tries to rally through the middle of the court before going for her blistering down-the-line backhand winner, a shot that dismantled Swiatek thoroughly in the first set. She’s unsuccessful, the net seemingly always in the way of her huge but impossibly flat strokes so far in this second set. Swiatek becomes sloppy, though, and in tandem with a few lucky let shots from Rybakina’s flat forehands, she is able to hold and bring the score to 4-2.
The next two games were well fought out, Ryabakina truly fighting them out each to deuce. Her powerful strokes are gone, and she is favoring rallies, trying to keep up with Swiatek’s sharp movements and angles. It gets her to deuce, but it does not save her from a break. Swiatek goes up 5-2. Though she lost that last game, the rallies gave her insight into what to do, and Rybakina is able to hold her lengthy service game with a changed strategy: more height, depth, and consistency overall. It helps her destabilize Swiatek’s intense rhythm, and she’s able to break her to remain in the match, with Swiatek to serve again at 5-3.
Swiatek’s patience is at its limit, and she refocuses quickly, shelving her frustrations to keep her energy on her game. This time, she is laser-sharp with everything: her serves, her footwork, and especially her backhands. Rybakina does her best, but it is over quickly, and Iga Swiatek emerges victorious over Elena Rybakina, 7-5, 6-3, breaking her three-time loss streak against her. This win secures her place in the Cincinnati Open Masters 1000 Finals, where her opponent is yet to be determined. She will either face the 2024 Roland Garros Finalist, Italian Jasmine Paolini, or Russian Veronika Kudermetova.
