No. 3 seed Iga Swiatek advanced to her third straight Cincinnati Open quarterfinal with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat over Sorana Cirstea in 1 hour and 35 minutes.

Cincinnati: Draws | Scores | Order of play

Swiatek improved to 5-0 overall against Cirstea, and has now won 10 consecutive sets against the Romanian. The only occasion on which Cirstea managed to take Swiatek to three sets was in their first meeting at the 2022 Australian Open, which Swiatek won 5-7, 6-3, 6-3.

Cincinnati is one of only three WTA 1000 events on the current calendar that Swiatek has played without yet reaching the final. She was a semifinalist here in both of the past two years, falling to Coco Gauff at that stage in 2023 and Aryna Sabalenka last year. She will next face either No. 12 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova or No. 28 seed Anna Kalinskaya.

Swiatek keeps nose in front: Swiatek made a lightning-fast start to the match, hammering three clean winners en route to an immediate break — a lead she maintained for the whole of the first set.

A pair of double faults from Cirstea handed the Pole an immediate lead in the second set as well, but Swiatek repaid the favor with two of her own in the subsequent game. Swiatek took a 4-1 lead before dropping serve for a second time, but was able to keep her nose in front and closed out her first match point with a forehand winner.

It was Swiatek’s 24th winner of the match compared to Cirstea’s nine.

In Swiatek’s words: Despite her commanding head-to-head lead, Swiatek did not take her opponent for granted.

“We played many tough matches, so I know Sorana can really hit the ball well — especially on faster surfaces,” she said. “So I was ready. I’m happy I was solid enough. I was trying to be proactive with my serve — not many of my first serves went in, but I was happy I was solid on my second serves.”