World No. 1s Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek both turned around losing situations on Saturday to move into the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open.
Sinner prevented rival Andrey Rublev from repeating a triumph from the previous week in Montreal as he defeated the sixth seed in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-4 fightback.
Swiatek did the same in the women’s draw as she worked to overcome teen Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.
Photo: Susan Mullane-USA TODAY
Sinner would square off in the semis against third-ranked 2021 champion Alexander Zverev, who got past rain interruptions in the final set to defeat Ben Shelton.
Top seed Sinner took to the court for only his second match of the week after a first-round bye and a walkover on Friday.
Sinner — whose fitness has been compromised in the past few months by a hip niggle, illness and the tonsillitis that forced him to miss the Olympics — stormed back to win the second set and break Rublev to start the third.
He clinched victory in a set where five of the 10 games were breaks of serve.His match point ball was caught by a gust of wind and put out of the reach of his opponent.
“There was a lot of mental strength required today,” Sinner said.
Poland’s Swiatek grabbed a break in the penultimate game of a match lasting more than two-and-a-half hours to finally advance past Andreeva at the US Open tune-up, which concludes today.
Swiatek moved through on her first match point, her opponent driving a return long, and won a 30th match this season at the WTA 1000 level. She stands 53-6 for the season and has won 25 matches on hardcourt.
Swiatek would bid for the finals against Aryna Sabalenka, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Liudmila Samsonova.
On the other side of Ohio, top seeds Latish Chan of Taiwan and Japanese partner Miyu Kato were yesterday to start their women’s doubles campaign at Tennis in the Land in Cleveland against American sisters Carmen and Ivana Corley.
Taiwan’s Wu Fang-hsien and Russian partner Yana Sizikova were to play second seeds Cristina Bucsa of Spain and Yifan Xu of China.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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