Iga Swiatek continued her preparations for the US Open in style as she cruised to a straight-sets victory over Marta Kostyuk at the Cincinnati Open. 

The Pole needed just 69 minutes to advance to the quarter-finals of the competition, earning a 6-2 6-2 victory after rain delayed the start of play in Ohio. 

Swiatek started the encounter as it meant to go on, earning a break point in the third game which proved decisive as she made her mark on proceedings early on. 

Despite the best efforts of the Ukrainian, the world number one strolled to within a set of victory after winning 73% of her first-serve points. 

Kostyuk simply had no reply to her Polish opponents' dominant service game, finding herself 3-0 down in double quick time in the second. 

Swiatek would drop just six points in the final three games, concluding the encounter with a love game to set up a tie against the winner of Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini on Saturday. 

Data Debrief: Swiatek replicates winning streak

Since Swiatek’s debut on Tour in 2019, only two players have won 14+ consecutive WTA-1000 main draw matches, those being the Pole herself in 2022 (23, Doha - Toronto) and again this year (14, current streak). 

Only Agnieszka Radwanska (14, between 2012 and 2013) has made more WTA-1000 quarter-finals in consecutive seasons than the Pole in 2023-2024 (13) since the format’s introduction in 2009.

Sara Errani will prioritise helping doubles partner Jasmine Paolini ahead of her French Open final against Iga Swiatek this Saturday. 

The Italian duo beat Marta Kostyuk and Elena-Gabriela Ruse 1-6 6-4 6-1 on Friday to book their place in the women's doubles final, where they will face Coco Gauff and Katerina Siniakova.

Paolini has been partners with compatriot and five-time grand slam doubles champion Errani since the start of 2024, and the pair have quickly created a special partnership, having triumphed at the Linz Open and the Italian Open. 

The world number 15 will play in her first grand slam singles final one day before her doubles fixture but faces a sizeable task in stopping Swiatek from claiming a third straight title in Paris. 

However, she has the backing of her doubles partner, with Errani hoping the 28-year-old can enjoy the occasion this weekend. 

"It's a special moment. Of course, being in a slam final is amazing. For sure, I will speak with Jasmine. If I can help a little bit, for me it would be amazing. I don't really know what to say," Errani said.

"I hope she enjoys it. I hope she believes. I believe in her. It's a really tough match, but I think she's an amazing player."

It proved to be a difficult opening set for the Italian pairing, but they were able to recover from that slow start.  

"Today was a really tough match," Paolini said. "The first set, I mean, we didn't see any ball. They were just passing, and we were there and trying to fight.

"Then we said, okay, this cannot go worse. We managed to come back. It was a really tough match, but we are happy to be in the final."

Naomi Osaka recorded her first win over a top-20 opponent on clay at the Italian Open on Thursday, posting an impressive 6-3 6-2 victory against Marta Kostyuk to reach the third round.

Having opened her first Italian Open campaign since 2021 with a straight-sets win over Clara Burel on Wednesday, Osaka produced another slick performance to down the world number 20 one day later.

Osaka blitzed Kostyuk to take the opener in just 36 minutes, taking advantage of a sloppy start from the Ukrainian, who served at just 40 per cent in the first set and tallied 15 unforced errors. 

The former world number one then forced a break within three games in the second set, only for rain to halt proceedings after she went 3-1 up. 

She showed no signs of rustiness upon returning to the court, though, even responding to a late loss of serve with an immediate break back to tee up a third-round clash with 10th seed Daria Kasatkina.

Data Debrief: First for Osaka on least favourite surface

Osaka has never considered herself a clay-court specialist, failing to reach a single tour-level final on the surface throughout her career.

Ahead of Thursday's match, she was 0-8 on clay against opponents in the top 20 of the WTA rankings. However, a routine victory should give her hope of repeating the feat against Kasatkina next time out.

Naomi Osaka claimed a straight sets victory over Clara Burel in the first round of the Italian Open.

Making her first appearance in Rome since 2021, former world number one Osaka prevailed 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 on Wednesday, marking her first win over a top-50 opponent on clay since she defeated Victoria Azarenka at Roland Garros in 2019.

Osaka, who is now ranked 173rd in the world by the WTA, will face Marta Kostyuk in the second round. 

She previously faced Kostyuk in the 2020 US Open, en route to winning her third major title.

Data Debrief: Back with a bang

Osaka reached the quarter-finals of the Italian Open in 2019, but did not win a game in 2021 and has not appeared at any other edition since then.

That means the 26-year-old won her first match at the event since she beat Mihaela Buzarnescu in 2019 (1,819 days ago). She wrapped up the win in one hour and 24 minutes, finishing with 27 winners, including eight aces.

In-form Elena Rybakina has moved into the last 32 of the Madrid Open after a straight sets victory over Italian Lucia Bronzetti.

Number four seed Rybakina triumphed 6-4 6-3 on Friday and will next face either Marta Kostyuk or Mayar Sherif.

Rybakina was broken early in each set but ultimately had few problems getting over the line, converting four of her five break points to continue an impressive run of results after winning the Stuttgart Open last week.

She has now won five consecutive WTA matches and has 13 straight wins on clay courts to her name in a superb streak that started one year ago.

Data Debrief: Rybakina in elite company

Since the start of 2020, only two other players have claimed as many 13 consecutive WTA wins on clay, and they are Iga Swiatek and Simona Halep, so Rybakina is in elite company.

Rybakina's last defeat on this surface came in the 2023 edition of the Madrid Open, when she fell to Anna Kalinskaya in her first match, so this win represented a better start to her campaign in the Spanish capital.

British number one Katie Boulter has claimed her first WTA 500 tournament victory with a 5-7 6-2 6-2 win over Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk in the final of the San Diego Open.

The 27-year-old from Leicester was watched by boyfriend Alex De Minaur, who scheduled an early-morning flight after retaining his title in Acapulco.

After an even start between the two, the sixth seeded Ukrainian began to get the better of Boulter, stringing multiple games together and rapidly closing in on the opening set.

Boulter fought back to even the set at 5-5, but Kostyuk regained the momentum to wrap up the first set 7-5.

Boulter then found her groove in the second, dominating on her first serve to clinch the set 6-2 and force a deciding third set.

The Briton continued her ascendancy into the third, claiming the first break point of the set en route to opening up a 3-1 advantage.

Boulter broke again in the seventh game and stormed home from there to close out the victory in two hours and 13 minutes.

Both women picked up their first WTA Tour titles last year in breakout 2023 seasons.

Boulter claimed her maiden championship on grass in Nottingham last summer, while Kostyuk found victory in Austin.

Boulter has had a flying start to the 2024 season and the victory over Kostyuk guarantees she will break into the top 30 for the first time.

Australian Open organisers faced criticism over scheduling after a long quarter-final between Novak Djokovic and Taylor Fritz delayed the night session by more than two hours.

Djokovic battled past his American opponent 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-2 6-3 after three hours and 45 minutes, with the match starting later than expected because of Coco Gauff’s lengthy clash with Marta Kostyuk in the opening match of the day on Rod Laver Arena.

Extending the tournament to 15 days this year and scheduling only two matches in each day session was meant to avoid the sort of early-morning finishes that have become increasingly common.

But there have only been two days out of 10 so far where play has finished by midnight, and Daniil Medvedev and Emil Ruusuvuori played until 3.39am in their second-round clash.

Tuesday’s delay meant women’s defending champion Aryna Sabalenka did not start her match, which had been due to begin at 7pm, until 9.10pm, and Jannik Sinner and Andrey Rublev were not hitting their first balls until after 10.40pm.

Discussions took place about potentially moving one of the night session matches to a different court, but that ultimately did not happen.

Fritz said: “It just screws up your whole clock. I pray for those guys. I get it, matches go long some days. Like, today in particular, my match was long, the match before us was really long.

“But there’s got to be something they can do where people aren’t playing until 2, 3am, because I don’t think people really fully understand how much time we actually have to spend doing stuff after we finish playing. If you finish at 2am, there is no chance I’m going to sleep until 5, 6am.”

Wimbledon is unique in having an 11pm curfew, but play at the other grand slams has no cut-off point, and, with the average length of matches increasing markedly in recent years, what was rare in now commonplace.

Djokovic said: “We’ve seen in the past some late finishes. And I know for the crowds and for the tournament in a way it’s kind of exciting to see a 4am finish, a 3am finish. I was part of some of those. But it’s definitely not fun for us.

“The good thing about the quarter-finalist on the men’s section is we have two days. So I think that’s plenty of time to get a good sleep and recover.”

Djokovic will also need time to recover after battling past Fritz and into the semi-finals in Melbourne for the 11th time.

The world number one has never lost here once he has made it beyond the last eight, and there is no doubt how much he wants a 25th grand slam title.

Djokovic had beaten American Fritz in all eight of their previous meetings but this was certainly not straightforward. The first game alone lasted 16 minutes and the first set 84 minutes as they toiled in the heat.

Fritz, looking to reach a slam semi-final for the first time at the third attempt, remarkably saved all 15 break points he faced in the opening two sets, and he impressively levelled the contest.

It was just the third set he had won against the Serbian, with the other two both coming in a third-round clash here in 2021, when Djokovic suffered an abdominal injury but still managed to win in five.

But Djokovic began to turn the screw in the third set as Fritz started to feel his left foot, and successive breaks in the fourth set him on the way to a record-extending 48th slam semi-final.

Speaking to Nick Kyrgios on court, Djokovic said: “I suffered a lot in the first couple of sets. Also due to his high quality tennis. He was really kind of suffocating me from the back of the court.

“It was really difficult to find the right timing, it was really hot while the sun was still out. We all know Taylor has got one of the best serves in the world. I knew the kind of a threat he poses when he serves on such a high quality.

“Conversion of the break points was really poor but I managed to break him when it mattered. I think I upped my game midway through the third set all the way through to the end.”

Fritz was left with mixed feelings, saying: “I played a really high level for the first two sets, and they were a physical, tough two sets. It was like two and a half hours by the time we finished the two sets. I need to get to the point where I can do that for five hours.”

Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka will meet in a rematch of the US Open final on Thursday for a place in the Australian Open trophy decider.

While seeds have fallen around them, Gauff and Sabalenka have made it through to the last four for what feels like a de facto final.

Fourth seed Gauff survived her first test of the tournament, needing three hours and eight minutes to defeat unseeded Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk 7-6 (6) 6-7 (3) 6-2.

Defending champion Sabalenka, though, continued her record of not having dropped more than three games in a set with a swift 6-2 6-3 win against ninth seed Barbora Krejcikova.

The start of the night session was delayed by more than two hours because of long matches in the day, but that did not affect Sabalenka, who said: “I think it was really a great match today, I think I played really great tennis and I hope I can keep playing that way or even better.”

The Belarusian lifted her first slam trophy here last year and has been the most consistent female player on the big stage, reaching at least the semi-finals at every major since.

She was favourite to win another title in New York but Gauff turned the tables after losing the first set to claim a 2-6 6-3 6-2 triumph and lift her first slam trophy.

The 19-year-old American is through to the last four here for the first time, but it was a real struggle, with Gauff and Kostyuk committing 107 unforced errors between them.

Gauff trailed 5-1 in the opening set before fighting back to win it, saving two set points.

She served for the match at 5-3 in the second set but now it was Kostyuk’s turn to surge back, and it was not until the third set that Gauff took control of the match, opening up a 5-0 lead.

The teenager is the youngest American to reach the women’s semi-finals in Melbourne since Mary Joe Fernandez back in 1991, and she is two wins away from making it back-to-back slam titles.

“It was a fight,” said Gauff. “I think today was definitely a C game, so I didn’t play my best tennis, but I’m really proud that I was able to get through today’s match. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”

Kostyuk, 21, was immediately able to put the result into perspective, saying: “I think it’s just a tennis match. I’m here to grow, to learn, to be better.

“I’m very proud of myself. I won for myself today, and I think it’s the most important thing. It’s just the beginning of the season. I’m looking forward for what’s ahead.”

Kostyuk and countrywoman Dayana Yastremska both made the last eight – Yastremska may yet go further – while Elina Svitolina reached the fourth round, and all have used the opportunity to highlight the ongoing plight of Ukraine.

“I think the girls did really well,” said Kostyuk. “I hope we will be able to succeed in most of the tournaments, especially the big ones where there is a lot of media. I think people should be reminded.

“I was texting with some people from Kyiv. I said, ‘How is it? How are you guys?’ They said, ‘Well, we were looking between your score and where the missiles are flying’. So it’s still there. My parents are still there. My sister is still there.”

Coco Gauff came through a three-hour battle with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.

The US Open champion had cruised through to the last eight but was pushed very hard by first-time grand slam quarter-finalist Kostyuk before clinching a 7-6 (6) 6-7 (3) 6-2 victory after three hours and eight minutes.

Gauff trailed 5-1 in the opening set before fighting back to win it, saving two set points.

She served for the match at 5-3 in the second set but now it was Kostyuk’s turn to surge back, and it was not until the third set that Gauff took control of the match, opening up a 5-0 lead.

The 19-year-old is the youngest American to reach the women’s semi-finals in Melbourne since Mary Joe Fernandez back in 1991, and she is now two wins away from making it back-to-back slam titles.

If she is to achieve that, she will surely need to play at a consistently higher level than here, with the pair making a combined 107 unforced errors.

“It was a fight,” said Gauff. “I think today was definitely a C game, so I didn’t play my best tennis, but I’m really proud that I was able to get through today’s match. Hopefully got the bad match out of the way and I can play even better.”

Kostyuk, 21, was immediately able to put the result into perspective, saying: “I think it’s just a tennis match. I’m here to grow, to learn, to be better.

“I’m very proud of myself. I won for myself today, and I think it’s the most important thing. It’s just the beginning of the season. I’m looking forward for what’s ahead.”

Kostyuk and countrywoman Dayana Yastremska both made the last eight – Yastremska may yet go further – while Elina Svitolina reached the fourth round, and all have used the opportunity to highlight the ongoing plight of Ukraine.

“I think the girls did really well,” said Kostyuk. “I hope we will be able to succeed in most of the tournaments, especially the big ones where there is a lot of media. I think people should be reminded.

“I was texting with some people from Kyiv. I said, ‘How is it? How are you guys?’ They said, ‘Well, we were looking between your score and where the missiles are flying. So it’s still there. My parents are still there. My sister is still there.”

Coco Gauff came through a three-hour battle with Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk to reach the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the first time.

The US Open champion had cruised through to the last eight but was pushed very hard by first-time grand slam quarter-finalist Kostyuk before clinching a 7-6 (6) 6-7 (3) 6-2 victory after three hours and eight minutes.

Gauff trailed 5-1 in the opening set before fighting back to win it, saving two set points.

She served for the match at 5-3 in the second set but now it was Kostyuk’s turn to surge back, and it was not until the third set that Gauff took control of the match, opening up a 5-0 lead.

The 19-year-old is the youngest American to reach the women’s semi-finals in Melbourne since Mary Joe Fernandez back in 1991, and she is now two wins away from making it back-to-back slam titles.

If she is to achieve that, she will surely need to play at a consistently higher level than here, with the pair making a combined 107 unforced errors.

World number one Iga Swiatek was enjoying the calmness amid the chaos at Wimbledon after easing past Sara Sorribes Tormo in the second round.

The Pole was able to book her place in the third round before some first-round matches had even started after rain caused havoc with the scheduling.

There was little danger of her being knocked out of rhythm as she breezed to a 6-2 6-0 victory on Centre Court.

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“For sure it’s really comfortable,” she said. “I’m happy that my matches were scheduled under the roof, so I always was certain that it’s going to actually happen.

“It’s a little bit easier to prepare knowing that. But on the other hand I know I would still be ready anyway if my match was suspended or something.

“For sure it’s more comfortable. I would say you have this normal grand slam rhythm with one day off, one day of playing matches.”

Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk revealed a bout of tears during the two rain breaks helped her stage an impressive recovery against eighth seed Maria Sakkari.

Kostyuk looked to be heading home after being bagelled in the first set, but, with the aid of a couple of emotional outbursts when the wet weather came, she turned it around to seal a 0-6 7-5 6-2 victory.

“The rain helped. I think I was very emotional,” she said. “I got more emotional on court after the second rain break, but before that, I was very emotional but I was, like, numb in a way. I was so emotional I couldn’t do anything about it.

“So I had a really good cry both times, that helped, because I was also desperate in a certain way, because I’m playing good, but I don’t know why is it going so bad.”

Kostyuk received good support from the British crowd, having been booed at the French Open for failing to shake Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka’s hand after their match due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

“That was questionable behaviour from the fans,” she said. “I mean, they can do whatever they want, honestly, but I just didn’t understand it. I don’t think I ever will.

“Obviously the support here is different, I’m very happy with the support at the end of the match and throughout the match too.”

Two-time champion Petra Kvitova enjoyed an impromptu appearance on Centre Court as her contest with Jasmine Paolini was moved there following three quick matches.

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And she prevailed in a thrilling late-night finish on her old stomping ground, winning 6-4 6-7 (5) 6-1.

Donna Vekic, who was originally scheduled to play on Monday, finally got on court and wrapped up a 6-2 6-3 success over Zhang Shuai while Anett Kontaveit, playing in her final tournament, beat Lucrezia Stefanini 6-4 6-4.

Daria Kasatkina needed only an hour to beat an overwhelmed Jodie Burrage on Centre Court while former French Open winner Sloane Stephens kicked off her campaign with a 6-2 6-3 win over Rebecca Peterson.

Marta Kostyuk was booed off court after refusing to shake hands with Aryna Sabalenka at the end of her first-round French Open defeat.

There was particular interest in the opening clash of the tournament on Philippe Chatrier given Ukrainian Kostyuk has been the most outspoken critic both of allowing Russian and Belarusian players to continue competing and of athletes from those two countries for not speaking out against their nations.

Sabalenka knew Kostyuk would not shake her hand at the end of the match, and the Belarusian said in her pre-tournament press conference: “If she hates me, OK. I can’t do anything about that.”

The pair kept well apart ahead of the contest, not posing together for the usual pre-match picture, and at the end of the 6-3 6-2 victory for the second seed, Kostyuk walked to shake hands with the umpire before heading to her seat.

A section of the crowd began booing, startling Sabalenka, who appeared unsure whether the gesture was directed at her, but the fans then cheered for her before jeering Kostyuk when she walked off.

Sabalenka said: “It was a very tough match, tough emotionally. I didn’t know if the booing was against me but thank you so much for your support, it’s really important.”

The Australian Open champion is one of three big favourites for the women’s title along with defending champion Iga Swiatek and Wimbledon winner Elena Rybakina.

She looked tight to start with and two double faults contributed to a loss of serve as Kostyuk took a 3-2 advantage in the first set.

But Sabalenka got back on level terms immediately and from there relaxed into the match, losing just two of the last 12 games.