Petra Kvitova and Caroline Garcia will contest the women’s final while Stefanos Tstispas and Borna Coric will square off for the men’s title as the finals of the Cincinnati Open were decided on a rain-soaked day.
Kvitova overcame a pallid start and 10 double faults to beat Madison Keys 6-7(6) 6-4 6-3.
Keys, the Cincinnati champion in 2019, got off to a quick start and was gifted an early break when Kvitova double-faulted three times. But the Czech broke back to level at 3-3 before losing 8-6 in the tiebreaker.
Kvitova took a resounding lead in the second but wobbled from 5-2 to 5-4 before recovering in time to set the match into a decider. Using her veteran savvy, Kvitova immediately broke Keys before using her poise to carve out another win.
The Cincinnati Open finals will be the 40th WTA Final of Kvitova’s storied career.
Her challenger Caroline Garcia, meanwhile, became the first qualifier to reach the final of a WTA 1000 tournament with a win over Aryna Sabalenka.
In a match hit by rain delays, the Frenchwoman prevailed 6-2 4-6 6-1.
Garcia, who leads the WTA Tour in aces, dominated the opening set particularly on her serve where she was 100% on first serve points won. The Frenchwoman was two-for-two on break opportunities as well including one to clinch the opening set.
Garcia was in complete control when the match was halted due to rain at 1-1 in the second giving Sabalenka a much-needed respite. Both players struggled to hold serve after the restart. There were five consecutive breaks until Sabalenka finally held to go up 5-3 on the way to levelling the contest.
The second rain delay came at 3-1 in the third right after Garcia had broken Sabalenka. But this time, when play restarted the Frenchwoman swept the next three games to end a long day with a victory.
After battling her way through qualifying, the resurgent Frenchwoman has notched wins over three top 10 world-ranked opponents, Maria Sakkari (4), Sabalenka (7) and Jessica Pegula (8).
Over at the men’s bracket, Stefanos Tsitsipas beat the current U.S Open champion, Daniil Medvedev, 7-6, 3-6, 6-3 in their hotly anticipated showdown to reach the final.
The greek will face Rafael Nadal’s conqueror, Borna Coric for the title who beat Cameron Norrie 6-3, 6-4.
