The 2025 Wimbledon champion suffered a major setback at the Canadian Open. Playing her first event since winning her sixth major title, Iga Swiatek looked far from her best in Montreal. In the R16 match, world No. 15, Clara Tauson dominated the first set tie-break and wrapped up the contest against the former world No. 1 by 7-6(1),6-3. At Wimbledon, it was Swiatek who had, in fact, brought an end to Tauson’s campaign by defeating her in straight sets. But more than a satisfaction of revenge, Tauson claimed this win was pretty much “unreal,” while Swiatek stated that her high error count cost her the match.

Iga Swiatek hit 46 unforced errors in that match, 25 of which were from her forehand. Following that disappointing end to her campaign, Swiatek admitted, “I made too many mistakes in the tiebreak…Of course, I didn’t play perfectly here. I always feel like I have to adapt to hard courts. And these matches are also an opportunity to learn.” Taking lessons from that match, Swiatek got off to a strong start at the Cincinnati Open. After defeating Elena Rybakina by 7-5,6-3 in the SF, Iga Swiatek has managed to outclass Jasmine Paolini in the final. She defeated the Italian by 7-5,6-4 to win her first Cincinnati Open title.

Paolini started the match on the front foot, winning the first three games in a quick time. But Swiatek then pulled back in the match and managed to retain her incredible record of not losing a single set in the tournament this year. What’s more? With this win, Swiatek overtook America’s Coco Gauff in the race for the year-end number one list. She currently has 7,103 points, while Gauff has 4,944. Seeing her incredible performance in Cincy, tennis legend Lindsay Davenport made a very interesting comment. She said, “Gotta start talking about her as THE favorite for the US Open,” during a conversation on Tennis Channel.

Iga Swiatek will be the world No. 2 when the new rankings come out. She couldn’t have asked for a better way to start her 2025 US Open campaign. If we take a look at the Live Rankings, Swiatek now has 7,933 points while Gauff has 7,874. So, that’s a 59-point lead for the Pole at the moment. But this win will boost her confidence before the hard-court major.

Swiatek’s best result at the US Open came in 2022. She defeated the Tunisian star, Ons Jabeur, in the final by straight sets at that time. Can she secure her second major title in the 2025 season? Time will tell! But before that, let’s check out what she had to say after winning the Cincinnati Open.

“I’m shocked” – Iga Swiatek’s initial reaction after her maiden title triumph in Cincinnati

Almost a month ago, Iga Swiatek became the first Polish singles champion at SW19. Now, she has become the first Polish player in the Open Era to win a singles title at the Cincinnati Open. With wins over Elena Rybakina (SF) and Jasmine Paolini (Final), Swiatek has now claimed multiple WTA Top 10 wins at a single event for the first time since the 2024 French Open. She has now won 52 of her 75 matches against the WTA Top 10 players.

While sharing her thoughts after the match, Iga Swiatek said, “I want to thank my team. I don’t know why I won tournaments that were like the last ones in terms of where I thought I would be playing well. So thank you for forcing me to become a better player and learning how to play on these faster surfaces. I’m shocked and super happy. Thank you for the constant support to my team and my family back home.” She also heaped praise on her opponent, Jasmine Paolini, for putting up such a tough fight and expressed her interest in playing against her yet again in the 2025 US Open final. With this win against Paolini, Iga Swiatek now has 11 WTA 1000 titles, the second most WTA 1000 titles since 2009, with only Serena Williams above her.

The Cincinnati Open is known as a good preparatory stage before the US Open, which begins Sunday in New York. In the previous two years, both the men’s and women’s Cincinnati Open champions went on to win the final Grand Slam tournament of the year. Are we going to see Iga Swiatek doing the same this year? Well, before entering the court for the singles event, Swiatek will team up with Casper Ruud for the revamped US Open mixed doubles event. How excited are you to see the Pole in action in NY, though?