Sinner and Swiatek fight back from a set down to reach semifinals; Alcaraz apologizes for racket hit – Firstpost

Cincinnati: World number one Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek both turned their losing situations around on Saturday and advanced to the semifinals of the ATP and WTA Cincinnati Open.

Sinner prevented his rival Andrey Rublev from repeating his triumph from last Saturday in Montreal by defeating the sixth seed in a comeback 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Swiatek did the same in the women’s draw, defeating young Mirra Andreeva 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Sinner will face 2021 third-seeded champion Alexander Zverev in the semifinals, who prevailed despite rain interruptions in the final set to defeat Ben Shelton 3-6, 7-6 (7/3), 7-5.

The third set was changeable, but the German reached the Final Four in Cincinnati for the third time in a row.

“The conditions and the stoppages were tough, but Ben was the toughest part of the match,” Zverev said.

“He’s been playing fantastic tennis all week. It was difficult to find my comfort zone today, but it’s great to have won.”

At the end of the draw, Fances Tiafoe will play against Holger Rune.

The American led 6-3 after half an hour, while fifth-seeded Hubert Hurkacz, who underwent knee surgery a month ago, had to retire due to a calf injury.

“At 2-2, I felt like he wasn’t quite at his best,” said Tiafoe, who was celebrating his 200th tour match win. “I know what it feels like to deal with pain and rehab… he came back pretty quickly.”

Rune, who had never won a match here until this week, defeated Britain’s Jack Draper 6-4, 6-2 in 75 minutes.

Rune managed to break twice in the second set and took the win after 75 minutes.

“The scoreboard didn’t reflect the feeling of the game,” said Rune. “It was very difficult, Jack tried everything,” he said.

The number one seed Sinner took to the court for only his second match of the week, after receiving a bye in the first round and winning by a walkover on Friday.

Sinner – whose fitness has been hampered in recent months by a hip strain, illness and tonsillitis that forced him to miss the Olympics – stormed back to win the second set and break Rublev early in the third.

MADNESS BY JANNIK SINNER 🤯#CincyTennis | @janniksin pic.twitter.com/cS9AxO2ssU

— Cincinnati Open (@CincyTennis) 17 August 2024

He secured victory in a set in which five of the ten games were breaks, but his match point was caught by a gust of wind and blown out of his opponent’s reach.

“Today required a lot of mental strength,” said Sinner. “The conditions were tough, very, very windy,” he said.

Sinner finished with 31 winners, including 10 aces, while Rublev, the runner-up in Montreal, made 47 unforced errors.

Poland’s Swiatek managed a break in the penultimate game of a match lasting more than two and a half hours and finally prevailed against Andreeva in the warm-up match for the US Open, which ends on Monday.

Swiatek won on her first match point, her opponent hit a long return to win her 30th match of the season at the WTA 1000 level. She is 53-6 this season and has won 25 matches on hard court.

Alcaraz apologizes for hitting a bat in “worst” loss of his career

Carlos Alcaraz apologized on Saturday, a day after smashing his racket in anger during a second-round loss to Gael Monfils.

The Spaniard, who currently holds both the French Open and Wimbledon titles, was left fuming over his match against the French veteran.

The Spanish number two described his 4:6, 7:6 (7/5), 6:4 defeat as the “worst game” of his career.

But on Saturday, he took to Instagram to smooth things over and is now preparing to make amends at the US Open.

“I would like to apologize for my behavior yesterday, it was not good and something like that should not happen on the pitch,” he posted.

“I’m human, nerves have built up and sometimes it’s very difficult to keep that tension under control. I’ll work to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Sabalenka advances

Swiatek will fight for a place in the final in Sunday’s match against Aryna Sabalenka, who defeated Liudmila Samsonova 6-3, 6-2.

Sabalenka, who reached her fourth semifinal in Cincinnati – and third in a row – will take over second place in the WTA rankings from Coco Gauff ahead of the US Open, which begins on August 26.

Sabalenka is working to win her first title since defending her Australian Open title in Melbourne last January.

Sixth-seeded American Jessica Pegula battled in the wind for more than three hours to defeat Canadian Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-7 (1-7), 7-6 (7/3) and reach the semifinals.

Pegula played two matches on Friday and admitted this final effort was exhausting as she reached her ninth semifinal in the 1000 series.

Let’s go!#CincyTennis pic.twitter.com/9w5KmV8Bdh

— Cincinnati Open (@CincyTennis) 18 August 2024

“I was tired today, but I persevered. She started playing really well. She’s a great competitor, but I got really worked up in the third set and calmed down.

“We had really tough conditions, the wind was really swirling and we both had trouble serving. It was crazy today, but I managed it.”

Pegula’s opponent will be Paula Badosa, who defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-2.