“Right when you’re not confident, there’s little things that start getting into your brain and you’ve got to chip away at them,” Rennae Stubbs said of Iga Swiatek back in April. Before that, the Polish star had walked through storms, no title since Roland Garros 2024, an early exit in Stuttgart to eventual champion Jelena Ostapenko, and later, a failed defense in the Paris Slam. Yet champions bend but do not break. At Wimbledon, Swiatek roared back to lift the crown, and now she stands in the Cincinnati Open final. Suddenly, Stubbs’ words carry a new rhythm as she might already see the 2025 US Open winner rising within the Pole.

World No. 3 Iga Swiatek stormed into her first Cincinnati Open final with a ruthless straight-set victory over Elena Rybakina, 7-5, 6-3. The reig

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