By the numbers: Swiatek pulls away from Arango to open Cincinnati defense
After capturing the National Bank Open crown on Thursday, the question was how Iga Swiatek might respond to a quick turnaround for her upcoming title defense at the Cincinnati Open.
She answered it with aplomb on Sunday. The Pole picked up her seventh straight match win — and seventh in a row at the tournament — by beating Colombia's Emiliana Arango 6-3, 6-0 at the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The 2025 Cincinnati champion won the last seven games after a slow start, falling behind a break at 2-1. She admitted that she needed time to adjust to the court speed in Cincinnati, which is “much different” from Toronto. But once she found her range, it was smooth sailing.
"I'm happy that I was patient and came back in the second set knowing what to improve," Swiatek said in her on-court interview after the 1 hour and 12-minute win.
Seven proved a good number for Swiatek in the match -- Arango is also now 0-7 against Top 10 players -- but it wasn't the only one. Other notable numbers from the match included:
2: Arango could do little to stem the Swiatek tide once the No. 7 seed got going. She only won two points on serve in the second set.
4: After hitting 17 unforced errors in the first set, Swiatek only hit four in the second set.
5: She broke Arango's serve five times in the match.
18: Swiatek finished the match with 18 winners -- 15 more than Arango.
30: The win marked Swiatek's 30th main-draw match won on the WTA Tour Driven by Mercedes-Benz this season.
41: Swiatek has now won 41 6-0 sets at WTA 1000 level in her career. Only Martina Hingis (52) and Serena Williams (50) have more since 1990.
99: Swiatek now has 99 career hard-court wins at WTA 1000 tournaments. Should she beat Maria Sakkari in the third round, she would become the fifth active player to claim 100-plus wins in hard-court WTA 1000 events along with Aryna Sabalenka, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina and Serena Williams.
