Swiatek and Rybakina advance to the round of 16 in Cincinnati with a scare included

The Monday session at the WTA Cincinnati 2026 came with a scare for two of the main favorites to reach the final in this part of the draw. First, Iga Swiatek had to sweat hard to overcome Maria Sakkari in a match where she went from less to more, ultimately winning by a score of 4-6 6-1 6-1 after nearly two hours of battle.

In the first set, the defending champion of WTA Montreal was far from the level displayed last week, which Sakkari took advantage of to achieve a break and maintain it until the final 6-4. However, Swiatek's reaction was not long in coming, raising her game and dropping just 2 games in the following 14 to reach the round of 16, where she will face Diane Parry.

Rybakina reacts just in time against Frech

On the other hand, Elena Rybakina also had a tough time against Magdalena Frech despite winning by a score of 6-4 7-6(2), as the Polish player even served to take the match to a third set. The Kazakh player is in striking distance of the number 1 spot in the WTA ranking, currently held by Aryna Sabalenka, so a good result in this tournament could fulfill her dream of reaching the top of the ranking for the first time in her career.

The first set began with a break in favor of Frech, but Rybakina managed to react in time to turn it around with a double break that gave her the lead in the score. However, chaos erupted in the second set. At 5-4 with Frech serving, Rybakina achieved another break to level it at 5-5, and even had three match points at 6-5 in her favor. However, it was not until the tiebreak that she could seal her passage to the round of 16, where she will face the winner of the match between Diana Shnaider and Maja Chwalinska.

This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Swiatek y Rybakina avanzan a octavos en Cincinnati con susto incluido