Iga Swiatek kept it simple after shockingly blowing five match points in the second set against Varvara Gracheva as the Pole simply accepted that it was her “fault” and wanted to start from scratch in the decider.

In her opening match at the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati, Swiatek appeared to be cruising toward a dominant win since she was 6-0 5-2 up. But then out of nowhere, Swiatek started missing out on her chances as Gracheva saved four match points in the eighth game of the second set – another match point in the 12th game – before winning a very tight tie-break to send the encounter into a third set.

After losing the second set in a crushing way, Swiatek started the decider with a break but dropped it in the fourth game. And that’s when the world No. 1 put into another gear and won the next four games to end Gracheva’s bid at completing a stunning comeback.

“Honestly I knew I had the game to win it because I had five match points. It was my fault that I didn’t close it. But it happens. I didn’t want to have any regrets. I looked forward and tried to take a lesson from what happened and start playing differently, in the same way I played the beginning of the match,” Swiatek said after the match.

Swiatek highlights the challenge she is facing this week

After competing on clay courts at the Paris Olympics, Swiatek kicked off her summer on hard courts in Cincinnati. But even though the five-time Grand Slam champion is playing this week, it was still a very limited practice she had going into this week.

“For sure, the transition is probably the hardest, from like the slowest surface [at Roland Garros] to the fastest surface. But that’s why I’m still happy with my performance, and looking forward to another match to kind of still do the grinding and implement what I was working on, but not really focusing on the results,” Swiatek explained.

Swiatek will fight next against Marta Kostyuk for a place in the Cincinnati quarterfinal.