TORONTO — Iga Swiatek arrived a few days earlier than usual for the National Bank Open, hoping the extra preparation time would help her make a deep run at the tournament.
It turned out to be a wise decision.
Swiatek defeated Elina Svitolina 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 on Wednesday night to secure her first appearance in a WTA Tour final in almost a year.
“It was just comfortable,” Swiatek said of her early arrival. “From the beginning, we felt like we’ve had a lot of time (at) the tournament.”
Now the six-time Grand Slam champion will cap the 12-day WTA 1000 event with an appearance in Thursday’s final.
She’ll play second-seeded Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan, who posted a 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 win over fourth-seeded American Coco Gauff in the late semifinal. Swiatek and Rybakina have split their 12 previous meetings.
Swiatek broke Svitolina’s serve at love for a 5-3 lead in the deciding set. She jumped out to a 40-0 lead before converting her second match point.
The seventh seed needed two hours 17 minutes to complete the victory. The start of the match was delayed about an hour due to wet weather.
The ninth-seeded Svitolina struggled at the outset, dropping the first four games and looking exasperated as the errors continued. Swiatek was working her from corner to corner and using strong net play to her advantage.
Things flipped in the second set as the Ukrainian finally won some service breaks. Her range and power from the baseline helped provide some needed momentum and it was Swiatek’s turn to search for answers.
The players seemed destined for a third-set tiebreaker as they went back and forth with powerful ground strokes. Svitolina blinked first in the decider as she double-faulted on triple-break point and Swiatek took advantage.
“I just needed to find the right rhythm,” Swiatek said. “I’m happy that I was patient enough to do that and that I didn’t get disappointed or didn’t give up and just found a way to play better in the third.”
Swiatek, who has won five of their eight career meetings, will appear in her first WTA 1000 final since winning at Cincinnati last summer.
Her last WTA Tour final appearance was in Seoul last September, when she picked up her 25th career WTA title.
All four semifinalists this year are ranked in the top 10.
The last time that happened at the National Bank Open was in 2000 when top-ranked Martina Hingis beat seventh-ranked Serena Williams for the crown. The other semifinalists that year were sixth-ranked Conchita Martinez and ninth-ranked Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.
Canada’s Victoria Mboko won this tournament last year in Montreal. She was unable to defend her title due to a knee injury.
In doubles play, the top-seeded duo of China’s Shuai Zhang and Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova defeated Slovakia’s Tereza Mihalikova and Britain’s Olivia Nicholls 6-1, 7-5.
Zhang and Siniakova were scheduled to meet Italy’s Sara Errani and American Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the doubles final on Thursday.
The tournament boasts a prize purse of US$7.43 million.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 12, 2026.
Gregory Strong, The Canadian Press
