Iga Swiatek opened her Cincinnati campaign with a straight-sets win over Anastasia Potapova, a result that both sets up a third-round meeting with 25th seed Marta Kostyuk and delivered three significant career markers.

Swiatek’s on-court comments captured the pragmatic tone of the victory. “I really wanted to be solid but pretty intense on the other hand,” she said. “It was a bit up and down in the second set. In the important moments, I got my level up & I could close it. First match in any tournament is always tricky.

“I’m happy I’m going to have a chance to play another one here.”

By defeating Potapova the reigning Wimbledon champion reached her 300th WTA Tour-level victory, excluding Billie Jean King Cup wins. That 300th triumph came in her 372nd WTA Tour-level match, the fewest matches to reach the mark since Serena Williams, who reached 300 in 360 matches at the Cincinnati Open in 2006.

The win also extended Swiatek’s remarkable string in opening matches at the WTA 1000 level. She has now won her opening match in her last 29 WTA 1000 appearances, a run that dates back four years. The last time she failed to win an opening match at that level was the 2021 Cincinnati Open, when she lost in round two to Ons Jabeur after a first-round bye. That 29-match run equals the streak Monica Seles compiled at Tier 1/WTA 1000 events from Key Biscayne in 1990 to Rome in 2000. Martina Hingis remains the benchmark with 39 straight opening-match wins between the 1996 Italian Open and the 2002 Canadian Open.

Finally, the Cincinnati victory was Swiatek’s 20th WTA 1000 match win in 2025, marking the fourth consecutive season in which she has recorded 20 or more wins at this level. She claimed 24 WTA 1000 wins in 2022, 27 in 2023, and 30 in 2024, and has won 10 WTA 1000 titles in her career. Her Cincinnati run continues with Kostyuk looming as the next test.

Emma Raducanu opened her Cincinnati Open campaign with a straight-sets victory over Olga Danilovic, a result that delivered an immediate live-ranking benefit and set up a high-profile second-round meeting. The 22-year-old beat Danilovic 6-3, 6-2 in a match that saw early volatility on serve. There were four breaks in the first five games before Raducanu secured the decisive break in game eight. She then dominated the second set with two breaks to close out the win. Raducanu began working with Francisco Roig after Wimbledon and the Spaniard’s full-time role through the end of the 2025 season was confirmed in the build-up to Cincinnati. Roig was one of 22-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal’s mentor for more than two decades. After the match Raducanu said,

“I’m really building some momentum. I’m really happy with how I’ve stayed pretty consistent over the last few months,”

“I still feel like there’s a long way to go but just working hard behind the scenes, putting a lot of hours in and hoping I can trust in that.”

The win improves her Live Rankings position. Raducanu had slipped six places to No 39 in the WTA Rankings after the Canadian Open, but the opening-round victory produces a projected five-place jump in the Live Rankings and moves her closer to the top 32 cut-off for US Open seedings. Raducanu sits on 1,426 points in the Live Rankings and, if she wins her next match, will move to 1,481 points and rise to No 31.

Her opponent in round two is world No 1 and defending champion Aryna Sabalenka, who began her title defence with a 7-5, 6-1 victory over Marketa Vondrousova. Sabalenka noted, “It’s always a tough match against her,” Sabalenka said. “[Vondrousova] always pushes me to the limit. You have to stay focused, and you have to fight for every point against her.” The pair met in a gripping fourth-round contest at Wimbledon, won by Sabalenka 7-6 (8-6), 6-4, and Sabalenka also prevailed in their previous meeting at the 2024 Indian Wells Open, 7-3, 7-5. The winner will face either Jessica Bouzas Maneiro or Taylor Townsend in the fourth round.

Madison Keys dug deep in her Cincinnati Open return, overturning two match points to beat Eva Lys 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1) in a two hour, 12 minute battle on Grandstand Court.

“I think I blacked out,” Keys joked after coming back to win, 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (1). “I was just trying to win the point directly ahead of me.”

Keys trailed 0-3 in the deciding set and had to recover after serving for the match at 5-4, ultimately surrendering only a single point after saving match point to dominate the final-set tiebreaker. It was the fourth time this season she has won from match point down.

“I think it was just one of those days where neither of us played great at the same time, but we both kind of kept finding it,” Keys explained her post-match mixed zone. “I feel like sometimes that’s just a tennis match: you’re not both raising your level at the same time, and that kind of happened a little bit today.

“I also thought we both played really well at moments.”

“I think I played well when it mattered. I think I served really well at the end, and that was huge. I felt like there was times when I wasn’t making the best decisions, but that’s life. Madison Keys

Keys will next face qualifier Aoi Ito for a spot in the fourth round. Her comeback in Cincinnati added to a remarkable start to 2025, a season that began with her first Grand Slam title in Melbourne where she dethroned defending champion Aryna Sabalenka after nearly losing to Iga Swiatek in the semis.

“You can definitely use that as confidence and hopefully you don’t get yourself back in that scenario,” she said of the halo effect winning tough matches can provide. “But definitely, there’s lot of positives you can take away from that.”

Keys has also reached the quarterfinals of Roland Garros and the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open this year and is positioned among the title contenders as she builds toward the US Open, for which this would be her 14th main-draw appearance. A former Cincinnati champion in 2019 and a semifinalist in 2022, Keys praised the venue and its fans.

“I’ve always loved this tournament and it’s always packed,” said Keys. “There’s never any match I’ve ever played where you look around and there’s not hundreds of people around. I think that part of that is that this tournament has been here for so long, but the fans are very knowledgeable. They’re very big tennis fans, and I feel like it’s such a great central location for a lot of Midwesterners to come.

“It’s always one of my favorite tournaments and I think the fans are a huge part of that.”