Turning Into Grass Specialist: Swiatek Reaches Bad Homburg Semifinals

Iga Swiatek reached the 2023 Bad Homburg Open semifinals after dominantly beating Anna Blinkova.

Entering the grass-court part of the 2023 season, the young Pole didn't have a lot of success on the surface in the past. She kept the expectations low but soon started to turn it around as her performance improved from one match to the other.

In her opening match at the 2023 Bad Homburg Open, Swiatek defeated grass-court specialist Tatjana Maria, who is one of the mothers competing on the WTA Tour. She then bested Jil Teichmann to reach maiden grass-court quarterfinals, and the quarterfinal performance was also impressive from the Pole.

Taking on the ninth-seeded Anna Blinkova, the World No. 1 knew that her opponent knows how to win on grass, having already three victories on the surface in 2023. But Swiatek was the favourite and she showed why.

The Top seed broke her opponent's serve in the sixth game of the first set, and after saving two break points in the next game, nothing stopped her from taking the opening set 6-3.

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The second set was much more one-sided from the favourite. After both players held two service games each, Swiatek started her one-woman show that would likely turn into another bagel if it started a bit earlier.

Since being down 1-2, Swiatek won 20 of the following 22 rallies, making it impossible for her opponent to fight for the win. After an hour and 13 minutes, Swiatek won the match 6-3, 6-2 to set up semifinal meeting with Italian Lucia Bronzetti.

Only recently, Swiatek became the longest-serving active World No. 1 on the WTA Tour. However, she now lost that title as Caroline Wozniacki came out of retirement, and the Pole will need a few more weeks to regain the title again and surpass the Danish player, who also has Polish roots.

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