Iga Swiatek pulls double duty in Warsaw to reach semis

World No.1 Iga Swiatek and Yanina Wickmayer will return to the court on Sunday at the BNP Paribas Warsaw Open to finish their semifinal match, and the winner will be back on court later to face Germany's Laura Siegemund.

Swiatek, the home favorite, led Wickmayer 6-1, 5-2 in the second semifinal Saturday, but couldn't finish off victory before the match was called off due to darkness.

The top seed served for the match twice, at 5-2 and 5-4, and also had three match points on Wickmayer's serve in the ninth game. But the Belgian, a former World No.12, climbed out of the hole and got even, ensuring her first semifinal appearance in six years would push on another day.

Earlier in the day, Swiatek and Wickmayer set their semifinal by winning their quarterfinal matches, which had previously been rained out on Friday. Swiatek beat eighth-seeded Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-1, 6-4, in a match between the only two seeds to make the last eight, while Wickmayer beat Heather Watson 6-4, 6-3.

Siegemund, meanwhile, took the long road into her first singles final in five years. In all, she needed 6 hours and 15 minutes on court combined in the quarterfinal and semifinal against Italy's Lucrezia Stefanini and her compatriot Tatjana Maria to reach the championship match for the first time since winning the 2017 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on home soil.

Siegemund hit 59 winners to 30 unforced errors 2 hours and 56 minutes against her fellow German Maria, who struck 16 winners to 17 unforced errors.

"I have to say that the spectators, they carried me a little bit," Siegemund said after beating Maria. "Against Tadde, you have to win every point by yourself, she gives you nothing for free. I knew that. She's played like this all her life and it's very difficult because you keep making errors, and you need to believe in yourself.

Wickmayer is assured of playing twice on Sunday regardless of the result against Swiatek. She and Watson will play in the doubles final against Poles Weronika Falkowska and Katarzyna Piter.

wtatennis.com

2015 - Iga Swiatek is the first Polish player to reach a semi-final in a WTA event played in Poland since Agnieszka Radwanska in Katowice 2015. Pride.


100 - Iga Swiatek is the 8th player to reach the milestone of 100 matches as the #1 in the world since the WTA Rankings were published in 1975 after Evert, Navratilova, Graf, Seles, Hingis, Henin and Serena Williams. Centennial.

2 of my favourite stats this year.