Madison Keys defeats Iga Swiatek in Cincinnati

Iga Swiatek has not played that well since Wimbledon and her struggles continued in Cincinnati as well with Madison Keys proving better 6-3 6-4.

Swiatek's first event after Wimbledon was a clay event in Poland but Caroline Garcia proved better. She then travelled to Toronto and got beaten fairly easily there with her struggles continuing here. Madison Keys is a player that can certainly beat the top ones because she plays a very attacking style that is hard to counter when she's playing well.

Today was such a case as she caught a very erratic Swiatkek who struggled with controlling the rallies. She complained yesterday about the balls being horrible and wanting them gone; perhaps that might have contributed to this score. The American started a bit slower but easily outplayed Swiatek down the stretch to get the first set 6-3.

The 2nd set was even more impressive early as the American hit the ball very cleanly and Swiatek could not handle it. She was up 5-0 and 40-15 but dropped that game on her serve. Swiatek made it 5-2 and broke Keys once more to get all the way back to 5-4. She had a chance to make it 5-5 but Swiatek dropped her serve once more to lose the match.

Keys move on to the quarterfinal looked pretty solid ahead of the US Open.