Iga Swiatek exorcises Roland-Garros ghost with statement win over Kostyuk in Toronto
Iga Swiatek avenged her Roland-Garros round-of-16 defeat to Marta Kostyuk with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 comeback win in Toronto, extending her record as the most consistent quarter-finalist in WTA 1000 history.
Iga Swiatek, Toronto 2026 | © Zuma / PsNewz
Iga Swiatek, the No. 7 seed, reached the quarter-finals of the National Bank Open in Toronto by beating Ukrainian Marta Kostyuk, seeded No. 10, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 on Saturday. It was the Pole’s first meeting with Kostyuk since the Ukrainian ended her Roland-Garros title defence in the fourth round in May, and this time Swiatek turned the tables in emphatic fashion.
Swiatek, ranked No. 8, had won only one point on her own serve in the entire first set before finding her range, dropping just three games across the final two sets to close out the win. The turnaround snapped a seven-match losing streak for the Pole in three-set matches against top-20 opponents, and marked her fourth WTA 1000 quarter-final of the season and her second in Canada, her first since 2023.
The meeting carried extra weight given how the pair’s last match had gone. At Roland-Garros, Kostyuk beat Swiatek 7-5, 6-1 in the round of 16, taking the first set the Pole had ever dropped to her across four meetings and inflicting the four-time champion’s earliest exit from the tournament in seven years.
Asked afterward how she had kept her composure this time given how tense she had looked in Paris, Swiatek pointed to a change in her own game rather than the occasion. “I’m in a different place for sure,” she said. “I feel like I could play my game. I couldn’t really do that at the French. So yeah, I knew what to do. I knew how to play. I just continued being focused and in the zone. Til the end I was pretty confident with my game plan and with my strengths. I’m happy how I did that.”
The win also extended a defining statistic of Swiatek’s career at this level. She has now reached 29 of 47 WTA 1000 quarter-finals, a 61.7 percent conversion rate that overtakes Serena Williams’s 61.2 percent (30 of 49) as the best since the format’s introduction in 2009.
That freshness showed from the outset: after a week-long break in Greece following Wimbledon, during which she said she “didn’t even think about tennis,” Swiatek returned looking sharp and efficient, beating Swiss Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-1 and Czech Sara Bejlek 6-0, 6-3 earlier in the tournament.
Kostyuk, ranked No. 11, reached the quarter-finals by beating American Madison Keys, the No. 19 seed, 6-3, 6-1, and Canadian Katherine Sebov 7-6 (4), 6-0. Swiatek will next face the winner of the match between American Jessica Pegula, the No. 3 seed, and Russian Diana Shnaider, seeded No. 15.
Toronto, round of 16 Results
- I. Swiatek (7) def. M. Kostyuk (10) d. M. Keys (19): 3-6, 6-1, 6-2
Toronto, round of 32 full results
- A. Sabalenka (1) d. S. Zhang: 6-3, 6-4
- E. Alexandrova (16) d. T. Gibson: 5-7, 6-1, 6-3
- E. Svitolina (9) d. A. Potapova (24): 6-1, 6-1
- A. Anisimova (8) d. N. Bartunkova: 3-6, 6-0, 6-4
- J. Pegula (3) d. K. Rakhimova: 6-4, 6-0
- D. Shnaider (15) d. A. Kalinskaya (17): 6-3, 6-3
- M. Kostyuk (10) d. M. Keys (19): 6-3, 6-1
- I. Swiatek (7) d. V. Golubic: 6-2, 6-1
- A. Eala (25) d. C. McNally: 6-3, 5-7, 6-4
- B. Bencic (12) d. T. Townsend: 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 6-4
- A. Korneeva d. I. Jovic (13): 6-3, 6-4
- C. Gauff (4) d. M. Sakkari (29): 6-1, 6-4
- L. Fernandez (30) d. M. Andreeva (5): 6-1, 6-4
- N. Osaka (11) d. E. Mertens (20): 6-1, 6-2
- L. Samsonova d. M. Joint: 7-5, 6-7(3), 6-2
- E. Rybakina (2) d. A. Li (28): 6-2, 7-5
