Iga Swiatek continued her emphatic form as she beat Elena Rybakina in straight sets to reach the Cincinnati Open final on Sunday.

The recently-crowned Wimbledon champion overcame an early first-set deficit with four straight games on her way to securing a hard-fought 7-5 6-3 victory in 98 minutes.

Third-seed Swiatek will now face seventh seed Jasmine Paolini after the Italian’s 6-3 6-7 6-3 victory over Veronika Kudermetova in Sunday’s second semi-final.

The win means Swiatek becomes the second player to officially clinch her place at the WTA Finals.

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“That was a tough match. At the beginning the level was pretty crazy, we played so fast that sometimes we couldn’t even run to the second ball,” Swiatek said during her on-court interview.

“But I was there to play with intensity and good quality and I am super happy with the performance. I served much better so for sure it helped and I wouldn’t change anything.”

The ninth-seeded Rybakina impressed in the early stages as she built a 5-3 lead in the opening set in her bid to follow up her victory over world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka in the previous round.

But back came a ruthless Swiatek to draw level before breaking Rybakina for a second time to eventually rescue the set.

It was largely one-way traffic from there onwards as Swiatek claimed a swift break for a 3-1 lead, before the Pole fought back from 15-40 down to make it 5-2 and pave the way to victory on serve.

Elsewhere Britain’s Sonay Kartal was knocked out in the first round of Tennis in the Land in Cleveland as she suffered a 6-4 4-6 6-7 loss to Solana Sierra of Argentina.

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