Iga Swiatek hit out at the “exhausting” tennis schedule after surviving a scare against teenage sensation Mirra Andreeva to seal her place in the semi-finals of the Cincinnati Open.

In her first experience of playing the Russian sensation on tour, Swiatek roared back from losing the opening set to triumph 4-6 6-3 7-5.

Swiatek will meet Aryna Sabalenka in the semi-final after the Belarusian overcame Liudmila Samsonova 4-6 6-3 7-5.

But Swiatek, the world No. 1, was not in a celebratory mood after her gruelling victory.

“What can I say? I’ve been kind of an advocate in saying that we shouldn’t, I don’t know… be pushing and pushing for us to play more,” Swiatek told Sky Sports when asked about the scheduling of the sport.

Swiatek continued: “Obviously it is not our decision, but for sure I think we have too many tournaments in the season.

“It makes tennis less fun for us. Obviously I love playing in all these places, but it’s pretty exhausting.

“I don’t think it should be like that because we deserve to rest a little bit more. Maybe people are going to hate me for that.”

Her fiery comments came after she was pushed all the way by the 17-year-old Andreeva in a match lasting two-and-a-half hours.

Having already defeated Emma Navarro, Karolina Pliskova and Jasmine Paolini, Andreeva was looking to take another scalp in the US.

Swiatek was under pressure almost from the start as she faced two break points, the second of which Andreeva converted.

With the confidence earned from building an early advantage, Andreeva came through a couple of close service games. Her nerve was tested once more when serving for the opening set where she saved two break-back points with a couple of devastating aces.

Swiatek took her first steps to turning the match around when she delivered her first break in the second set after over an hour’s play, but failed to make it a double with Andreeva saving another break point.

The five-time Grand Slam winner then levelled the match with a statement hold to love to take an intriguing match to a third set.

The decider was another tense affair. Service was not broken until the 11th game, when, with the scores locked at 5-5, Swiatek delivered a major blow to Andreeva’s hopes of causing an upset.

The teenager had shown remarkable composure throughout but could not hide her frustration at losing points at such a key juncture in the game as she threw her racquet to the ground.

There was more drama to come as Andreeva threatened to break back and take the match to a deciding tie-break, but Swiatek recovered to take the final two points, recording her 30th WTA 1000 win of the season.