CINCINNATI: Aryna Sabalenka squandered nine match points but defeated world number one Iga Swiatek 6-3, 6-3 on Sunday, breaking through to her first final at the WTA and ATP Cincinnati Open.

Four-time Cincinnati semi-finalist Sabalenka will rise to second in the WTA rankings with a week to go before the start of the US Open.

Raindrops required the court lines to be dried by towels during several short interruptions.

Sabalenka will play the final against US sixth seed Jessica Pegula, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 winner over Spain’s Paula Badosa.

Pegula, who won last week’s Toronto title, is the third American in the Open Era to reach the Canadian and Cincinnati finals in the same year after Rosie Casals (1970) and Serena Williams (2013).

Sabalenka had a battle on her hands to close out her win, with Swiatek putting up a huge battle in the closing stages.

Third-ranked Sabalenka led 5-1 in the second set but Swiatek showed why she is ranked atop the WTA table as she repeatedly saved match-winners from her opponent.

Sabalenka was broken for 5-3 but finally claimed the hard-fought victory a game later with a concluding break of Swiatek on a return winner on her 10th match point after nearly two hours.

Pegula and Badosa were hit by a rain delay of well over an hour midway through the second set with Badosa leading 4-3 and trailing a set.

They resumed with the Spaniard forcing a third set before Pegula broke for 5-3 in the third and served out victory a game later.

SINNER EDGES PAST ZVEREV

On the men’s side of the event, Jannik Sinner ended his losing streak against Alexander Zverev with a 7-6 (11-9), 5-7, 7-6 (7-4) win to set up a Cincinnati Open final against American Frances Tiafoe.

The world number one had lost four consecutive matches to Zverev, with his only previous win over the German coming at Roland Garros four years ago.

The semi-final lasted more than three hours, not including a rain interruption.

The match was paused midway through the first-set tie-break for nearly 30 minutes while a shower passed over the area — another episode of the poor weather which has plagued the event in recent days.

Sinner saved two Zverev set points and won the opener on his own third chance, only to drop the second set after he lost an early break and was broken again in the 12th game as he sent an overhead into the net.

The third set went into a tie-break, with Sinner taking a 5-2 lead and triumphing on his second match point.

Tiafoe came from 5-2 down in the final set and claimed a deciding tie-break for a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) defeat of Danish 15th seed Holger Rune.

Published in Dawn, August 20th, 2024