Iga Swiatek back to winning ways with U.S. Open opener

[1] Iga Swiatek (POL) d. Jasmine Paolini (ITA) 6-3, 6-0

Swiatek has played down expectations ahead of the fourth major of the year. Since her 37-match winning streak, the longest of this century, was ended by Alizé Cornet in the third round of Wimbledon, the Pole won just four out of seven matches before the US Open. In the run-up, she was open about her dislike of the balls used at Flushing Meadows.

But this emphatic 67-minute win was a reminder that, even out of her comfort zone, the 21-year-old can still be a destructive force. Swiatek smacked 14 winners to Paolini's five, and was ruthless in converting seven of nine break points.

The No.56-ranked Italian battled hard, breaking back twice in the first set and then winning the point of the match in the second with a backhand winner after going to to toe with Swiatek for 27 shots. But it wasn't enough to halt Swiatek's momentum as the World No.1 powered to her 18th bagel set of the year.

"I think just we did huge work before the tournament to work properly, but on the other hand also chill out and find a proper balance," Swiatek said, after her win.

Swiatek will next face 2017 champion Sloane Stephens, who overcame Greet Minnen 1-6, 6-3, 6-3. Swiatek and Stephens squared off for the first time this month in Cincinnati, where Swiatek won 6-4, 7-5.

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18th love set of the year. Simply Iga Swiatek things :D

Tennis unites for Ukrainian relief efforts at US Open

Tennis' biggest stars gathered Wednesday night under the lights of Louis Armstrong Stadium to play for peace.

WTA stars Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Maria Sakkari, Leylah Fernandez, Dayana Yastremska, Katarina Zavatska and Daria Snigur joined ATP stars including Rafael Nadal, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini and Carlos Alcaraz at the Tennis Plays for Peace exhibition ahead of the US Open, the year's final Grand Slam.

All proceeds from the exhibition were to be donated to GlobalGiving, the international non-profit identified by Tennis Plays for Peace. All donations to GlobalGiving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund will support humanitarian assistance in impacted communities in Ukraine and surrounding regions where Ukrainian refugees have fled.

US Open tournament director Stacey Allaster opened the event by saying that $1.2 million for Ukraine was expected to be raised over the course of the US Open.

Five doubles sets were played across the exhibition: Swiatek and Nadal first faced John McEnroe and Gauff, followed by Pegula and Ben Shelton facing Fernandez and Felix Auger-Aliassime.

After Swiatek and Nadal won the spirited set, Swiatek spoke about how the situation in Ukraine has been top of mind for her over the last six months.

Swiatek called on the Ukrainian people to stay strong in her victory speech at Roland Garros in June, and last month, raised 500,000 Euros in support of Ukrainian children at an exhibition event in Poland that also featured Agnieszka Radwanska and Elina Svitolina.

Zavatska was the first Ukrainian player to take the court on the night, partnering Italy's Berrettini against Sakkari and Tsitsipas. One of the highlights of their set was Tsitsipas committing to make an individual donation in support of the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund.

Zavatska, who represented Ukraine in Billie Jean King Cup play against the U.S. earlier this year called special attention to the fact that the exhibition was held on Aug. 24, or Ukraine's Independence Day.

“On this day, all the Ukrainian people ... this year’s fireworks are not the same," she said. "I really wish next year we will celebrate this day with a free Ukraine.”

After a men's doubles set between Frances Tiafoe, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul and Alcaraz, Tiafoe returned to the court to partner Yastremska against Snigur and Sebastian Korda.

Draped in a Ukrainian flag at the conclusion of the set that she and Tiafoe won, Yastremska spoke from her heart and spoke of the future she hoped to see: “One day … every single person is going to live in peace. And everything is going to be OK.”

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Iga Swiatek notches 50th match win of the year at Western Southern Open in Cincy

MASON, Ohio -- World No.1 Iga Swiatek kicked off her Western & Southern Open campaign with a 6-4, 7-5 win over Sloane Stephens to advance to the Round of 16. The victory is Swiatek's tour-leading 50th win of the season, including her two wins at the Billie Jean Cup.

Swiatek will face either Madison Keys or Jelena Ostapenko next.

In the first meeting between the two Slam champions, Swiatek broke Stephens six times over the course of the match. While the performance was not as clean as Swiatek would have preferred - she hit 17 winners to 25 unforced errors - Swiatek was able to keep Stephens at bay. She held the American to just nine winners in the match.

"I'm pretty happy that I started well, both sets," Swiatek said. "I had some trouble closing it earlier, but I'm really happy that in those important momentsAsked to reflect on her best wins of the season, Swiatek cited her variety of three-set comebacks.

"Well, for sure those matches maybe in Indian Wells, those three sets against Simona and Angie," Swiatek said. "Yeah, it was pretty tricky, but also, at Australian Open when I could come back after losing first set, that really gave me a lot."

Here are some fast facts on Swiatek's 50th win: I was able to refocus again.

2019: The last time a player tallied 50 wins in a season. That season, Ashleigh Barty posted a tour-leading 56 wins en route to being named WTA Player of the Year. Kiki Bertens and Karolina Pliskova also crossed the 50-win threshold that season.

39: Number of straight-set wins for Swiatek this season (78.0%).

6: Number of losses Swiatek has taken en route to 50 wins.

0: Losses in 2022 for Swiatek when she wins the first set, going 33-0.

9: Number of matches Sloane Stephens has played against a reigning WTA World No.1. With her loss to Swiatek, Stephens drops to 0-9.

24: Wins at WTA 1000s this season for Swiatek, the most since Simona Halep won 26 in 2017.

1: Player who has a higher winning percentage than Swiatek at the WTA 1000 level. With a 40-11 record at the WTA 1000 level, Swiatek's winning percentage is 78.4%. Only Serena Williams has a higher strike rate at 83.1%.

8: Years since a player won seven or more titles in a single season, which Serena Williams did in 2014. Swiatek has already won six this season.

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Swiatek on her long-term approach, dream showdown with Serena and more

MASON, Cincinnati -- You’d be hard-pressed to classify Iga Swiatek’s recent results as a slump, but the fact of the matter is she has now gone three straight events without a title.

And while in the bigger picture that doesn’t seem like reason for concern, consider this is a player who earlier this season rolled through six straight tournaments without as much as a single loss. Four of those titles came at WTA 1000 events, along with her run through the Roland Garros field, where she dropped only one set in seven matches.

A victim of her own success? Perhaps, but the larger answer is in Swiatek’s full-scale approach.

“I'm trying to look long term at whole process and maybe think [where I want to be] in the next season,” Swiatek said Monday during her pre-tournament press session at the Western & Southern Open. “It's more my team who is kind of like convincing me that I should think long term.”

But there is also the immediate matter at hand, which can’t be overlooked. In Cincinnati, Swiatek is looking to become the first player since Serena Williams nine years ago to win seven titles before this month’s US Open.

The bad news: In four main-draw appearances at the Western & Southern Open, Swiatek has never advanced past the Round of 32. The good news? The forecast.

Last week in Toronto, Swiatek fell to eventual runner-up Beatriz Haddad Maia. Afterward, Swiatek conceded the conditions were difficult to navigate.

“Especially, this was the first day that it was so windy,” she said to the press in Toronto. “So I didn't even know that it's going to be like that. And it was hard to even prepare, you know?”

To be fair, Swiatek credited her opponent for adjusting to the conditions better.

“When she was playing with the wind, she was playing really strong balls,” Swiatek said. “And sometimes I was late for them. And on the other hand she was able to put it in.”

This weather this week in Cincinnati looks nothing short of ideal, with temperatures hovering in the mid to high 70s and minimal wind.

“But I'm trying also to learn how to play in different conditions because it's so key, just when you're changing places every week,” Swiatek said. “I feel like first part of the season I was pretty lucky because there were some really windy days and I didn't play during these days.

“So right now I'm also trying to be prepared to anything.”

Speaking of preparing for anything ...

How about a showdown with Serena Williams?

"I would love to just to see how it is to see her on the other side of the net,” Swiatek said.

On Monday, Swiatek told the press she remembers watching Williams on TV growing up. That at the time, it was surreal to think about a future in which she and the 23-time Grand Slam champ would be at the same venue, never mind the same court.

“Just seemed like a different world,” she said.

Swiatek and Williams have never played. And according to the top-ranked player, they’ve never met off the court.

“I have a hard time catching eye contact with Serena,” Swiatek said. “It’s tough because she always had so many people around her, and I'm pretty shy and when I look at her I kind of forget that I'm here as the World No.1.

“I feel like I'm the kid from kindergarten.”

Swiatek, who has an opening-round bye, and Williams are on opposite sides of the draw.

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Iga Swiatek makes triumphant return to hard courts in Toronto

World No.1 Iga Swiatek's picked up where she left off on hard courts. Playing her first match on the surface in four months on Wednesday, Swiatek was a 6-1, 6-2 winner against Ajla Tomljanovic in the second round of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers.

Here are three takeaways from the World No. 1's first hard-court win since April:

A winning return to the surface: Swiatek's last match on hard courts was more than 100 days ago, in Billie Jean King Cup play on April 16. She went 2-0 representing Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup Qualifiers against Romania, capping an unbeaten spring on the surface in which she also won titles in Doha, Indian Wells and Miami.

Her win against Tomljanovic is her 19th straight on hard courts this season. Despite losing serve twice in the second set of 64-minute match, she broke Tomljanovic's serve six times overall. Swiatek won the first five games of the match and also the last four, and hit 16 winners to Tomljanovic's two.

"I'm pretty happy that I could actually just play my game. It was the first match so it's never easy," Swiatek said. "But I feel like I found my rhythm and it was a pretty solid performance.

"From the first practice I played here I felt really good. And even though there was jet lag and I was coming back from clay I felt like I was in a good place."

A brief history in Canada: This is just Swiatek's second main draw played in Canada. In her 2019 debut, as a teenage qualifier, she reached the third round before losing to then-No.2 seed Naomi Osaka.

That week, she also beat Tomljanovic (who retired in Round 1 at 4-1 down) and former World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. It's a run that Swiatek says she remembers fondly.

"Both of the matches that I played here in main draw against Caroline Wozniacki and against Naomi was like a breakthrough for me," Swiatek said.

"I remember I got injured after US Open, and I just watched highlights of these matches for couple of months to kind of remind myself that I was going the right path and that I'm improving.

"It really gave me extra motivation. Because even though I lost this match against Naomi I remember I was just happy that I could play such a tight match against her. She was World No. 1 back then so it was a big deal for me for sure."

A lefty up next: Swiatek was assured of facing a left-hander in Round 3, regardless of who won the match between No.13 seed and home favorite Leylah Fernandez, or Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia. After an opening set that lasted more than an hour, Haddad Maia was victorious, 7-6(4), 6-1. It's her fourth Top 20 win of the season.

"Iga, I think she's been doing the best year that she could do," Haddad Maia said. "I will try to play the same: improve myself, improve my game. try to play what I've been doing in the last couple of weeks, and enjoy the moment as well."

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