Iga Swiatek shares whether she is happy with her performance after dropping set in first match at Cincinnati

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Iga Swiatek assessed her opening round performance at the Cincinnati Open which marked her return to hard courts.

The 23-year-old took on Varvara Gracheva in what was her first match on the concrete since the Miami Open in March.

During the past five months the World number one dominated the clay court season which included winning the French Open for the fourth time and claiming a bronze medal at the Olympic Games.

Now back on hard courts, Swiatek is off to a winning start at the Cincinnati Open but it did not come without its fair share of challenges.

Iga Swiatek assessed her opening round win at the Cincinnati Open

Iga Swiatek began her opening round at the Cincinnati Open by dominating the opening set against Gracheva.

She went up 5-2 in the second set and looked to close out a routine victory, but everything changed when the Frenchwoman fought her way back into the match.

Gracheva earned herself a tiebreak, but was trailing 1-4. To the shock of many, Swiatek once again failed to hold her lead and ultimately lost the tiebreak by 10 points to eight.

Swiatek gathered herself and went on to complete a 6-0, 6-7(8), 6-2 win, and though she had a blip mid-match, she is happy with her first match back on hard courts.

“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from the slowest surface [at Roland Garros] to the fastest surface,” she said.

“But that’s why I’m still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results.

“It wasn’t easy, but I’m happy that I could have 6-0, 5-2 in my first match on hard court. But for sure, Varvara was fighting and, and, yeah, I wasn’t able to close in the second set, but I’m happy that I could figure it out in the third and start playing the same kind of game as at the beginning of the match.”

Iga Swiatek’s Cincinnati Open campaign only gets tougher

The pressure on Swiatek is only set to intensify as she will take on Ukraine’s Marta Kostuyk in the next round.

The dangerous 22-year-old took out Elise Mertens in round one before eliminating Wimbledon quarter-finalist Lulu Sun.

Swiatek has played Kostyuk on two occasions, with the first coming at the French Open in 2021 which the Pole won 6-3, 6-4.

Swiatek also won their second meeting which was in the semi-finals at Indian Wells earlier this season. She dropped just three games before going on to win the title.