Sabalenka ousts No.1 Swiatek to reach Cincinnati final against Pegula

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.

"I finally broke the barrier," Sabalenka said of her place in the final. "It was such a tough battle with Iga, and we also had to be patient with the weather."

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

Sabalenka will play Monday's 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.

"That was a brilliant performance from me. I'm really happy with the win, especially against Iga," said Sabalenka.

"We always have tough battles and get this win in straight sets... that's kind of like achievement for me."

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.

"We had tough conditions, but I was able to not get frustrated with the rain delay," Pegula said. "I felt I was playing and competing well.

"Paula was hitting so hard, I didn't know what to do sometimes. I had to remind myself to be aggressive and serve well. I knew it would be hard to break her.

"But I played a couple of good points and was able to serve it out."

Pegula said she expects to give Sabalenka "some trouble" in the final.

"It will be a good test to go up against her," Pegula said. "I'll do my best. It has been a long couple of weeks."

- Swiatek 'wasn't good' -

Sabalenka's victory served as revenge after losing to Swiatek in Masters-level clay finals at Madrid and Rome last spring.

"Aryna was just playing better today and using her advantages," Swiatek said. "I didn't serve well at the beginning, which threw me off my rhythm. For sure, it wasn't a good performance for me."

Swiatek she played overall better than she expected, adding, "I'm happy with the result anyway. I'm already kind of focusing on what I need to do to feel even better in New York. And we'll work on stuff for sure."

Sinner to clash with Tiafoe in final

Jannik Sinner ended his losing streak against Alexander Zverev with a 7-6 (11/9), 5-7, 7-6 (7/4) win on Sunday to set up a final in the Cincinnati Open against American Francis Tiafoe.

The world number one had lost four of five previous matches against the German, with his only win coming at Roland Garros four years ago.

The tight victory took more than three hours not including a rain interruption.

The match was paused midway through the first-set tiebreaker 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 fall in the second set as 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 tiebreaker with Sinner taking a 5-2 lead and triumphing on his second match point.

"It was a tough match, a very exciting match," the Italian said. "We played in different conditions: sunny, rain and then night.

"There was a lot of tension for both of us. I'm very happy with my performance and happy to be in the final."

Sinner, who won his last title on grass in Halle two months ago, will play a rare Monday final against the winner from Frances Tiafoe and Danish 15th seed Holger Rune.

"I had to play with my gut, I feel that is my strength," the 23-year-old said. "We had some ups and downs over three hours."

"I couldn't have played a better match than this to prepare," he said, looking ahead to the start of the US Open in eight days.

The player who has suffered recently with a hip problem, illness and the tonsillitis which forced him to skip the Olympics, said he needs to keep up his fitness.

"If I'm going to win bigger matches, I have to be more in shape. Today I stayed mentally strong; I'm proud of that."

Sinner will be playing in his fifth career Masters 1000 final.

- Crazy -

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

Tiafoe is the first American man to play the final here since John Isner in 2013; he saved two match points in his come-from-behind win.

Tiafoe will move into the ranking top-20, joining four compatriots in the strongest US showing since 1997.

"It was crazy, that last set was nuts," the American said. "It got breezy at the end, but you just had to play the percentages.

"I got lucky with a couple of net cords, which made a huge difference. I battled in the tiebreaker and he got a little tight. One thing led to another and here we are."

Tiafoe said that even trailing 5-2, "I was not too stressed. I just put the pressure back on him. You have to make him beat you."