How Cincinnati champ Swiatek turned the least likely titles into the most telling ones

Iga Swiatek lost the opening three games of the final in Cincinnati and was serving at 30-all when the match began to turn. It was a winner that might have caught a millimeter of the sideline, but it was enough. Swiatek won the next five games.

The six-time Grand Slam champion might be the best at changing the complexion of a point with a single deep-in-the-corner, re-direction of the ball. Now, it appears, she has rediscovered the ability to recover her focus in a moment.

Appropriately, following Monday night’s 7-5, 6-4 victory over Jasmine Paolini, after closing with her ninth ace of the match, Swiatek turned to her team in their courtside box and pointed at her temple. And then she ran around the court, literally, repeatedly leaping in celebration.

It’s a reminder Swiatek is back, and in a big way. After a 2024 season that featured a single title -- her fourth at Roland Garros -- and a relatively indifferent start to 2025, that predatory gleam in her eye has returned.

“This season hasn’t been easy,” Swiatek said. “I’ve had areas to improve. It’s not easy to win tournaments when everyone is expecting you to.”

The recent Wimbledon champion will be the No. 2 seed at next week’s US Open, anchoring the bottom half of the bracket, and comes in riding more momentum than any of the other favorites.

Celebrating with her team immediately after the win, Swiatek used the word “shock” to describe winning Wimbledon and Cincinnati, tournaments she confessed later she thought she had no chance of winning.

“I mean, let’s be honest,” Swiatek told reporters. “Before, Cincinnati was like the fastest surface we had on tour. So now it has changed a little bit -- it’s [slower]. If I would have to point to tournaments that will be the hardest ones to win, it will be Wimbledon and Cincinnati.

“It’s kind of proved that the greatest moments will come when you least expect them. And I’m also happy that I’m just progressing on these faster surfaces.”

Swiatek has now beaten Paolini all six times they’ve met, winning 12 of 13 sets. This was a terrific, competitive effort by the Italian Paolini, who was forced to play a high-risk game way out of her comfort zone.

But the reality is Swiatek was again just too much. At 5-all in the first set, a Swiatek forehand got up on Paolini so quickly, she actually swung and missed, the ball just ducking under her frame.

Her new-and-improved serve is deadly. A year ago, Swiatek was averaging 103 mph for her first serves in Cincinnati. This year, she was at 110. Under coach Wim Fissette, she’s been more aggressive, flattening out those offerings when the situation suits. And that makes those mid-80s serves she carves to the outside even more effective.

Swiatek has always been acknowledged as a good frontrunner, but this number from Opta Stats is difficult to believe: In completed matches, she is now 105-0 when she wins the first set of a WTA 1000 match. That’s not just perfect, it’s perfectly ridiculous.

Midway through the second set, Swiatek displayed that uncanny, keep-the-hammer down ability. Paolini had just broken her with a magnificent rally that ended with a running forehand pass that sent her coasting off the court, arms outstretched, and drew a standing ovation.

Swiatek promptly broke her back with her own forehand passing shot to take a decisive 4-3 lead.

She’s still only 24, but this is Swiatek’s 11^th WTA 1000 title -- of 13 finals played. If that seems like a lot, that’s because it is. In the 16 years they’ve been contesting these 1000s, only Serena Williams, with 13, has more.

Additionally, Swiatek is a sensational 15-2 against Top 10 players in WTA-level finals.

After getting stranded in the semifinals of the past two Cincinnati Opens, she’s now the champion.

“Last year I came here after the Olympics, so I literally thought of this tournament as a transition one before the US Open,” Swiatek said. “Two years ago, and this year, I really wanted it. That’s why I’m just happy. 

“It’s nice to, like, check off the list, another tournament on the season that I haven’t won, and it’s a great motivation to push forward.”