Swiatek holds off Gracheva in three sets to win Cincinnati opener

CINCINNATI -- World No.1 Iga Swiatek made a winning return to the hard courts at the Cincinnati Open on Wednesday night. Playing her first match since winning a bronze medal for Poland at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Swiatek held off Varvara Gracheva 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-2 in her tournament opener.

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"For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from like the slowest surface [at Roland Garros] to the fastest surface," Swiatek said. "But that's why I'm still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results."

A semifinalist last year, Swiatek will face Marta Kostyuk next in the third round. Kostyuk advanced by defeating Lulu Sun 6-3, 7-5.

Swiatek comes into Cincinnati looking to win her 11th WTA 1000 title of her career and fifth WTA 1000 of this season alone. Her 10 WTA 1000 titles are tied for second-most since the tournament's introduction in 2009, level with Victoria Azarenka and behind only Serena Williams' 13. 

Swiatek has captured four of the six WTA 1000 tournaments so far this season, winning Doha and Indian Wells on hard court and Madrid and Rome on clay. With her third straight Roland Garros title in May, the 23-year-old Pole has already secured her spot at the WTA Finals Riyadh, where she is the defending champion. 

Swiatek improved to 2-0 against Gracheva, with both meetings taking place on hard court. After Swiatek slammed the door in the first game with back-to-back aces to hold, she won the next six games before Gracheva held to 1-1 in the second set. Gracheva won just eight points in the opening set. 

Swiatek led 5-2 in the second set and held four match points to break Gracheva for a 50-minute win. But the French qualifier saved them all and then broke Swiatek at love to put the second set back on serve. With Swiatek's losing the feel on her forehand, Gracheva stayed steady and leveled the set at 5-5. 

Gracheva saved a fifth match point to hold and force the tiebreak. There, Swiatek again built a slight lead but could not close out the win. From 4-2 up, she lost four consecutive points to help Gracheva close out a remarkable second-set turnaround, with the Frenchwoman converting on her fifth set point. 

Swiatek reset quickly to break Gracheva three times in the final set to end the 55th-ranked Frenchwoman's upset bid. Over 80 minutes after seeing her first match point, Swiatek converted on her sixth to secure the win after 2 hours and 11 minutes. 

"Well, for sure, it wasn't easy, but I'm happy that I could have 6-0, 5-2 in my first match on hard court," Swiatek said after the match. "But for sure, Varvara was fighting and, and, yeah, I wasn't able to close in second set, but I'm happy that I could figure it out in the third and start playing the same kind of game as at the beginning of the match."

Swiatek finished the match with 41 winners to Gracheva's nine, while hitting 30 unforced errors to 16. She is now 21-0 this season against opponents ranked outside the Top 50. 

More notable results from Day 2:

• Caroline Wozniacki made good on her wild card by defeating Anhelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-4. Wozniacki will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Round 2. Pavlyuchenkova rallied from a set down to defeat 17th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-3 to tally her first Top 25 win since Indian Wells.

• Polish qualifier Magdalena Frech followed Swiatek's win with a strong performance against Mubadala Citi DC Open runner-up Marie Bouzkova. French prevailed 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 and will face No.7 Zheng Qinwen in the second round.