Iga Swiatek slithers out of defeat, advances to semis at Cincinnati Open

No. 1 seed of Iga Swiatek of Poland battled back to avoid an upset on Saturday, capturing a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory over Russian Mirra Andreeva in the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open in Mason, Ohio.

It looked like Andreeva was going to pull off a stunning win when she went up 5-4 in the third set, but Swiatek, the World No. 1, took the next three games to end the 17-year-old's historic run at the tournament.

Andreeva was just the fourth player under the age of 18 to reach the quarterfinals of a WTA-1000 level event since 2009, the year that tournament tier was introduced.

"She's playing and behaving like she's older," Swiatek said of Andreeva. "We were playing even, at a similar level, so it was really tight and every point mattered at the end. ... I'm happy that I just did solid, and yeah. It wasn't easy, for sure."

Swiatek prevailed despite converting only 2 of 10 break points and having fewer aces (12-6). She will go up against Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka, the No. 3 seed, in the semifinals.

Sabalenka was a 6-3, 6-2 winner over 10th-seeded Russian Liudmila Samsonova on Saturday, swatting five aces against zero double faults. She saved 3 of 3 break points and won 27 of 34 first-serve points.

It took Sabalenka just 79 minutes to oust Samsonova.

Two more quarterfinal matches were scheduled for Saturday. No. 6 seed Jessica Pegula of the United States was set to face Canadian Leylah Fernandez before Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Spain's Paula Badosa squared off in the nightcap.