A set down, then nothing for Sakkari
Iga Swiatek looked heavy through the opening set on Monday. Maria Sakkari, seeded 29th, took it 6-4, and the defending champion’s week in Cincinnati suddenly had a question attached to it.
The answer came fast. The next two sets went 6-1. Sakkari managed two games after the opener, and Swiatek walked off with her seventh consecutive win at this tournament and her eighth in a row overall.
Fatigue was the obvious early suspect. Swiatek lifted her first title of 2026 in Toronto less than a week ago, and the turnaround between one hard-court final and the next big hard-court event rarely favours the player who went deepest.
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The seeding says less than the record does
She is ranked fifth in the world and seeded seventh here, which undersells what she has done on this court. Cincinnati has become one of her steadier stops, and she arrived as the reigning champion in the middle of a run that now stretches to eight matches.
Sakkari needed this one to change the shape of her summer. She had the first set and the cleaner rhythm early. She had no way of holding either once Swiatek started returning deeper and shortening the points.
Parry next
Diane Parry stands between Swiatek and a place in the last 16. The Frenchwoman is ranked 66th, and on current form that reads like a gap. The first set on Monday was still a reminder that Swiatek’s floor this season has sat well below her ceiling.
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