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Iga Swiatek will play her first-ever semi-final on the tour on grass on Friday. The Pole won her quarter-final match against Anna Blinkova on Thursday at the Bad Homburg Open. Swiatek needed an hour and 12 minutes to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2 win.
Swiatek won 75% of her first-serve points to Blinkova’s 70%. The latter also hit five double faults in the match while Swiatek didn’t commit any double fault. The world no. 1 also won 69% of her second-serve points and 61% points on return on Blinkova’s second serve.
Swiatek converted three of four break points on Blinkova’s serve while saving the couple of break points she faced. Swiatek hit 17 winners more than Blinkova’s seven and had just seven unforced errors to her opponent’s 13.
Speaking after her win, Swiatek said, “I'm happy that I can play such solid tennis. Usually, there's not much time to practice on grass so I'm pretty happy that I used that time 100% between Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
I'm happy that I'm feeling confident and hopefully I can play like that for the next two weeks”. Including her run at the French Open, Swiatek’s now won 10 matches on the go. Talking about going this far in an event on grass, she mentioned, “I wouldn't put myself close to being an expert on grass, but I'm making progress and that's the most important thing for me.
The time here really helped me. Every year I feel like it's easier to get used to the conditions”.
Bad Homburg Open: Lucia Bronzetti's maiden trip
In the semi-finals, Swiatek will play Lucia Bronzetti. The Italian posted an upset for the second straight time, this time over eighth seed Varvara Gracheva.
Bronzetti won 6-4, 6-3 after an hour and 16 minutes of play. As with Swiatek, the Italian, too, will be playing in the semis of a grass-court tournament for the first time in her career. Emma Navarro reached the semi-finals after her opponent Rebeka Masarova retired in their quarter-final clash.
The Spaniard had won the first set 7-6(2) against Navarro and the scores were tied at one-game all in the second set before her retirement due to an injured knee. Navarro awaits the winner of Katerina Siniakova and Liudmila Samsonova in the semi-finals of the Bad Homburg Open.
Siniakova and Samsonova had taken the match to a deciding set before darkness had forced their match-up to be postponed to Friday. Photo Credit: Iga Swiatek Twitter