{"id":88807,"date":"2025-08-16T20:49:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T00:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=88807"},"modified":"2025-08-16T20:49:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T00:49:06","slug":"wta-cincinnati-semifinal-predictions-swiatek-rybakina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2025\/08\/16\/wta-cincinnati-semifinal-predictions-swiatek-rybakina\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Cincinnati Semifinal Predictions Including Iga Swiatek vs Elena Rybakina"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It promises to be a terrific day of WTA Cincinnati semifinal action. Jasmine Paolini will face Veronika Kudermetova, while <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/category\/wimbledon\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Wimbledon<\/a> winners Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina are set to meet in the other semifinal. We at LWOT provide our predictions and analysis in this article, but which players do you expect to win?<\/p>\n<h2>WTA Cincinnati Semifinal Predictions<\/h2>\n<h4>Jasmine Paolini vs Veronika Kudermetova<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Kudermetova 3-1 Paolini<\/p>\n<p>Kudermetova has won all three hard-court previous meetings with Paolini, but the last of those was in 2021. The Italian is a far better player now and reached another 1000-level semifinal with triumphs against Maria Sakkari, Ashlyn Krueger, Barbora Krejcikova, and Coco Gauff. Kudermetova overcame Suzan Lamens, Belinda Bencic, Clara Tauson, Magda Linette, and Varvara Gracheva.<\/p>\n<p>The most crucial part of this matchup is how well Kudermetova serves. Paolini&#8217;s more complete game and significantly better athleticism will almost certainly prevail if her 28-year-old opponent does not produce with that shot. Kudermetova has only been broken three times in her last six sets. She will also be aggressive on Paolini&#8217;s serve, the weakest part of the two-time Grand Slam runner-up&#8217;s game. The combination of powerful serving and taking the return early on the speedy Cincinnati courts could stop Paolini from getting into enough rallies and allow Kudermetova to prevail.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Kudermetova in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Dq6VZ5kjSp5txRHETmPzRA\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2229490597\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Dq6VZ5kjSp5txRHETmPzRA',sig:'lgA7pdciV2cDX2iIBdnwEhuyWWwxfM0FTMmcMIcTLlE=',w:'594px',h:'371px',items:'2229490597',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h4>Iga Swiatek vs Elena Rybakina<\/h4>\n<p>Head-to-head: Swiatek 5-4 Rybakina<\/p>\n<p>Swiatek has enjoyed a comfortable route to the semifinal. The six-time Grand Slam champion did not drop a set in victories against Anastasia Potapova, Sorana Cirstea, and Anna Kalinskaya, and received a walkover from Marta Kostyuk. Rybakina worked much harder to reach the semifinal. The Kazakhstani recovered from losing the opening set against Renata Zarazua, Elise Mertens, and Madison Keys before overcoming the world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.<\/p>\n<p>Although the head-to-head is close, Swiatek has won her last three meetings against Rybakina. Their previous meeting was an epic at the 2025 French Open, which the Pole won 7-5 in the third set. The lively conditions in Cincinnati should help <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/07\/09\/elena-rybakina-history-wimbledon-win\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the 2022 Wimbledon winner<\/a> in her quest to rush Swiatek. However, the former world No. 1&#8217;s superb return might prove decisive. Since Wimbledon, that shot has been the most impressive in women&#8217;s tennis and will significantly help against Rybakina.<\/p>\n<p><em>Prediction: Swiatek in 3<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Main Photo Credit: Mike Frey &#8211; USA TODAY Sports<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It promises to be a terrific day of WTA Cincinnati semifinal action. Jasmine Paolini will face Veronika Kudermetova, while Wimbledon winners Iga Swiatek and Elena Rybakina are set to meet in the other semifinal. We at LWOT provide our predictions and analysis in this article, but which players do you expect to win? WTA Cincinnati [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4708,"featured_media":63881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[42361,5595,15653,4315,15631,5319,15728,2373,2369,5398,15535,7979],"class_list":["post-88807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-predictions","tag-cincinnati-open-predictions","tag-elena-rybakina","tag-elena-rybakina-predictions","tag-iga-swiatek","tag-iga-swiatek-predictions","tag-jasmine-paolini","tag-jasmine-paolini-predictions","tag-tennis-picks","tag-tennis-predictions","tag-veronika-kudermetova","tag-veronika-kudermetova-predictions","tag-wta-cincinnati-predictions"],"modified_by":"Shane Black","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4708"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88807"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88832,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88807\/revisions\/88832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}