Iga Swiatek eases past Anna Kalinskaya to reach Cincinnati Open semi-finals

Iga Swiatek is into the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open after making light work of Anna Kalinskaya sealing a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Russian ace who was left lamenting the scheduling and it did not work in her favour.

Kalinskaya took to social media last night after she had to play late against Ekaterina Alexandrova the night before to complain about the WTA and Cincinnati Open putting her on court again within a short period of time after she had previously just won her Last 16 encounter.

Many pointed to it benefiting Swiatek in particular who is well known for not liking playing later on and often requests earlier games instead of night sessions. So it seems like she was given her wish as she got the 11am slot. But it was Swiatek that excelled.

"How can the WTA and tournament expect athletes to perform their best when the scheduling is this unfair?" she said on Instagram. "After my match against Alexandrova, I got home from the site at 2:40am and didn't go to bed until 4am. I slept a bit and came to the site to practice.

"Then I get scheduled at 11am for tomorrow's match - how does the tournament and WTA expect me to recover and continuously adjust my sleep pattern, which is one of the most important aspects of recovery? Seems a bit one sided."

Now Swiatek will take on either Aryna Sabalenka or Elena Rybakina in Sunday's semi-final and it would advance Swiatek into her first WTA 1000 final in 15 months when she beat Sabalenka in Rome. Rybakina and Sabalenka are currently facing off. Back then when she last wonshe was at the top table of tennis in particular on clay. It has been a much more arduous road since then with Swiatek struggling to string displays together even on her favourite surface.

But after winning Wimbledon, she has had more of a pep in her step and that has continued after a poor Canada into Cincinnati. She won 24 out of 30 first serve points and 15 of 23 second serve points and was only broken once against a player who had her number the last time they played back in early 2024 in Dubai. Kalinskaya came into this match with a record of 13-10 against top players and as Jessica Pegula can atest even when she has beaten her, she has been pushed.

So she is a player for the big occasion but so is Swiatek. Kalinskaya had seen off Amanda Anisimova, Ekaterina Alexandrova and reached the final of Washington as well as winning twice in Montreal. But it fell apart against Swiatek. She called for the trainer early and after a medical timeout for a calf issue, she was broken. After saving set points, she had Swiatek in the palm of her hand but couldn't convert and Swiatek finally sealed it. In the second, Swiatek again broke Kalinskaya early. Kalinskaya hit back but played a poor game that followed with no semblance of consistency and Swiatek then led 4-3.

After saving four match points, Kalinskaya finally succumbed to her fate as she hit a return long to give Swiatek the win. A good return for the Russian but still work to do going into the back end of the US hard court swing. Still though for a player injured a fair bit, it is good to see her produce a consistent run.

“Just played my game,” Swiatek said in her on-court interview. “For sure, it wasn’t easy. Just happy I was solid and had the intensity to apply pressure.”