Iga Swiatek makes her first ever tour level final on grass in Bad Homburg!

 

Iga Swiatek will contest her first final in more than a year -- and her first career final on grass courts -- at the Bad Homburg Open after defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in Friday's semifinals.

Fourth seed Swiatek improved her record over Paolini to 5-0 with the 1 hour and 6 minute victory -- her first head-to-head meeting with the Italian this season. She largely led wire-to-wire in her sixth Top 10 win of the year, outside of the early stages of the second set where Paolini broke her serve in the first game. The World No. 4 converted the only break point she held against Swiatek in the match in that game, but surrendered her serve to love immediately after and never led again.

Swiatek now owns 50 career victories over the Top 10 -- but until Friday, she hadn't earned any of those on grass.

"I wasn't expecting to win this match, so I'm happy that I just did my job," Swiatek said afterwards. "I knew how I wanted to play and I just went for it. I'm happy I kept the momentum going until the end of the match, Jasmine, you can't let her get back in the game because she's a fighter. I just wanted to go for it, and go for my shots."

Looking to win her first title since she triumphed at Roland Garros last spring, Swiatek will face either No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula or unseeded Linda Noskova in Sunday's final.

wtatennis.com

If you told me last year that in 2025 Iga would lose in the semis at Roland Garros, not reach a final for another 13 months, only to break that curse by reaching her first career final on grass I would have laughed. 

I think I'm still laughing actually but it's from pure happiness. 

Seems like the pressure truly being off Iga and putting in some work with Wim has allowed her to shine on grass for the first time in her career. 

I won't lie and say that I haven't been waiting for this day because I have. 

And as her long time fan it feels glorious. 

I have no idea why she has such low confidence on this surface honestly. 

She clearly has the game for it (yeah ok net game still needs some work) but the rest is solid. 

Spending a few extra days training on grass this year is certainly paying off. 

I think I've seen her hit more aces in this tournament than she usually does in a year.  

Whatever happens in the final with Pegula on Saturday, I have never felt more proud. 

It's so good to see her happy and enjoying herself out there again (on her worst surface no less!). 

I've missed it. 

Her game is a joy to watch and when she's feeling good it flows. Long may it continue.

Whatever the out come, what a great confidence booster for  Iga before Wimbledon.

Jazda Iga Grasstek! :)

Iga Swiatek back in the semis of Bad Homburg

 

No. 4 seed Iga Swiatek will bid to reach the first grass-court final of her career at the Bad Homburg Open against No. 2 Jasmine Paolini. The pair set a rematch of the 2024 Roland Garros title match after similar tight two-set wins in the quarterfinals. Paolini came through 7-5, 7-5 against Beatriz Haddad Maia, and Swiatek followed on the Spielbank Bad Homburg Centre Court with a 6-4, 7-6(5) defeat of No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Can Swiatek stay perfect against Paolini? Swiatek will seek to preserve a perfect record against Paolini to date. She currently leads the head-to-head against the Italian 4-0 -- though this will be the first time they have met on grass, and the first time they have met with Paolini as the higher-ranked player. Moreover, their most recent encounter in the semifinals of last year's Billie Jean King Cup Finals suggested that Paolini was getting closer to a win.

In their first three meetings -- in the second round of a Prague ITF W80 in 2018 and the 2022 US Open first round, as well as their Roland Garros final -- Paolini mustered just nine games combined, three in each encounter. On the indoor hard courts of Malaga last November, she pushed Swiatek all the way in a 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 loss.

Swiatek navigates tricky conditions and tough opponent: "I already lost against her, so I knew she could make amazing tennis," Swiatek said of Alexandrova after coming through against the 30-year-old, a two-time grass-court titlist. "For sure, her flat shots fit really well on the grass."

The serve proved the most crucial aspect of the game for both players. The match opened with three consecutive breaks, but after that neither player conceded their delivery for the rest of the match. Both saved all three break points they faced in the second set -- Alexandrova in two separate games, and Swiatek digging herself out of a 0-40 hole to hold for 2-2. In total, Alexandrova won 71% of her first-serve points and Swiatek 75%.

In the end, the match came down to a handful of key moments. Having exchanged breaks in the first two games, Swiatek nudged ahead for 2-1 as Alexandrova sent a forehand wide, and held that lead for the rest of the opening set. At 4-4 in the second-set tiebreak, she thumped a forehand winner into the corner to take control.

The former World No. 1 also kept her focus by doing crosswords during a lengthy rain delay serving down 4-3, at deuce, in the second set.

"Today, it was all about adjusting to the conditions, because it was super windy for most of the match," Swiatek said afterwards. "We both tried to do what we can -- on the one hand, be intense, but on the other hand play it safe."

Swiatek advances to her second career grass-court semifinal, both of which have come in Bad Homburg, where she also made the last four in 2023.

"I just love these small tournaments," she said. "It feels like we're one big family just enjoying tennis. I would play tournaments like this every week if I could, without all the unnecessary fuss and everything."

wtatennis.com

 Another very impressive win over a very experienced grass court player in very tricky windy conditions.

The serve has been a life saver for Iga this entire tournament. 

Paolini next in the semis where Iga is 4-0 H2H but Paolini has great skills at net with all her doubles experience so definitely won't be easy. 

Win or lose I hope Iga treats the match as an opportunity to implement things her and Wim have been working on. 

And you can tell she worked hard because it's really showing in her performances.  

Iga Swiatek off and running on the grass in Bad Homburg

Iga Swiatek scored her first win of the grass-court season at the Bad Homburg Open on Tuesday by topping Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.

Competing for the first time in nearly three weeks -- since her 26-match Roland Garros winning streak ended at the hands of Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals -- the fourth seed rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the opening set to beat Azarenka for the fifth straight time.

Swiatek recognized the importance of overcoming a slow start against Azarenka, also a former No. 1, who came through qualifying and defeated German Laura Siegemund in the first round.

Swiatek finished the match with four breaks of Azarenka's serve, and hit 25 winners and six aces.

“The first few games, I thought I was playing really well, and I had opportunities to break her, but I didn’t,” Swiatek said. “I kind of got maybe less intense, but I wanted to keep doing what I know I can do, and at the end, it was a great match.

“It was my first match on grass this year, actually having byes in these tournaments is not always a great thing because I want to play on grass as much as possible right now, but I’m really happy that I’m through to the next round.”

The win was also notable in that it was the 300th match-win of Swiatek's career.

Swiatek will face the winner of Wednesday's second-round match between No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and wild card Maria Sakkari in the quarterfinals.

wtatennis.com

First outing on the grass for Iga this season and an excellent one at that. Aces, slice forehands, volley's and great returns. 

I was especially impressed with the serve over all. 

Didn't appreciate Azarenka making drama out of nothing (something about re-tossing the ball too much before serving (which she literally did herself a game prior). 

Correcting your ball toss is perfectly within the rules. Someone was just feeling a bit bitter about losing if you ask me (especially given that Iga's H2H with Vika is now 5-0).

Next opponent could be tricky, Sakkari would certainly make it physical whereas Alexandrova  could just hit a bunch of shots down the line preventing any rallies. 

But neither one is in any particular form so I'd say it's a real 50/50. 

Iga has nothing but points and time on the grass to gain so she can just play freely. 

Every win on grass is a bonus towards getting back to the top of the top 10. 

So we take it one match at a time.




 

Iga Swiatek & Daniil Medvedev take on pro padel players

 

Iga Swiatek's Roland Garros 3 year reign ends in the semis

It's been a few days now and I'm still processing it all, but also feeling an immense amount of pride in Iga Swiatek.  

Sure there's plenty of disappointment and sadness as well but mainly I just feel proud. 

Iga somehow  defied the odds when everyone (including myself at times) completely wrote her off. 

She came into Roland Garros without a single final or title and no real form for the first time in years, and yet she still made the semi-finals. That in itself shows what a great talent she is. 

She also did it having a much tougher draw then the top 2 players currently on the WTA, and a poor showing at both lead up tournaments of Marid and Rome (all of which she was of course the defending champion).

Despite all that she came into Paris a week and a half early and trained and completely turned around her mind set and got back into the 2nd week of her favourite Slam. Not many players would have been able to do that. 

And despite the extremely tough loss I'm so impressed with the way Iga fought in those first 2 sets, under the roof.

Conditions which were more favourable to her big serving opponent. 

Many have been calling the third set a collapse (given she lost it 6-0). 

But again Iga came into this tournament with very low confidence, not having reached 1 final this year and she still give the current world #1 Aryna Sabalenka a bigger fight then the rest of the opponents in her draw. 

She give it her all as she always does.

That last set in my opinion is the result of low confidence, lack of finals and titles, perhaps a little bit of lack of belief.  All things a player needs to win with the best. 

Part of me will always be wondering how this match would have gone had the roof been open, because it does change the conditions quite a bit. And for those 2 sets Iga was going toe to toe with Aryna. 

3 years, 11 months  27 days and 4 Roland-Garros titles later the astounding 26 match win streak comes to an end.

But what a ride it was!.

Another one for the tennis history books, a run that will not soon be repeated. 

And certainly not one anyone (myself included) will soon forget.

Iga has set the bar so extraordinarily high at Roland Garros (and everywhere else) that it's hard not to see every other result short of a title as a failure. 

But the reality is form dips happen to every great player at some point in their career. 

After 5 years of high standards and dominance it's completely normal to have a moment of weakness like this. 

In fact I'd say it happens so often it's actually more surprising it hasn't happened to Iga until now. It happened to the 3 greats Nadal, Federer and Djokovic at some stage in their career.

The good news for Iga is she's still so young, she has time on her side to improve and build on things. 

We're only half way through the season so plenty of time for Iga to do just that this year. 

I hope she doesn't get too discouraged with this loss but instead takes the wins here as a huge positive that she's back on track and just needs to keep working. 

Things are definitely starting to click back into place. She just came across someone with supreme confidence at the moment who's got a lot more wins in finals under her belt. 

And really if she had to lose to anyone here of all places I'm glad it was to the world's best instead of someone random. 

There's never any shame in losing to the best, only shows you where your level is at. 

Knowing Iga and her perfectionist nature she's going to keep working and come back even stronger. 

This will definitely not be the last time we see Iga Swiatek's name on Coupe Suzanne Lenglen, of that I have no doubt. 

Keep your head up Iga, while this loss hurts a lot now you'll bounce back from this!.

Who knows maybe this will be the year you discover your talent on grass.

Until then as always we take things one step and one match at a time.

See you on the green stuff.

Jazda!

Personally I don't think I'm quite ready to see anyone else holding that trophy just yet, so I'm going to give the women's final a miss this year and focus on the men this Sunday instead.

Iga Swiatek back in Roland Garros semis with 26th consecutive win

 

Defending champion Iga Swiatek extended her Paris superlatives on Tuesday, reaching her fourth straight Roland Garros semifinal and earning her 26th consecutive victory at this event.

No. 5 seed Swiatek of Poland defeated No. 13 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine 6-1, 7-5 in their quarterfinal meeting on Court Philippe-Chatrier. Svitolina needed 1 hour and 41 minutes to collect her fourth win in five matches against Svitolina.

Despite holding her lowest ranking since 2022 and nearly falling to Elena Rybakina in the previous round, Swiatek pulled out some of her peak play to dismiss Svitolina, who was seeking an appearance in her fourth career Grand Slam semifinal.

"Even though first set, the score looks pretty straightforward, it wasn't like that in any other games," Swiatek said to the press. "I had to fight for every point. I'm happy that I also stepped up when she broke me in the second set, and that I kept my intensity until the end."

Semifinal showdown vs. Sabalenka: The stage is now set for a semifinal clash between the two players who have locked down the No. 1 ranking since April of 2022.

Swiatek, who has spent 125 weeks at World No. 1, will face current World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenkain the final four on Thursday. Sabalenka is enjoying her 41st week at the top of the rankings and ousted reigning Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in their quarterfinal.

Swiatek leads the overall head-to-head 8-4, and the clay-court head-to-head 5-1. Sabalenka, though, beat Swiatek 6-3, 6-3 in their most recent meeting, on the hard courts of Cincinnati last year. This will be their first-ever meeting at Roland Garros.

"For sure our rivalry is pushing both of us, I think, but it's not only about the level of tennis," Swiatek said. "It's about like everything, how we work, and how professional we are."

Clay-court queens: Svitolina started the day as this year's clay-court match-win leader, with 16 victories on the dirt in 2025. She won an indoor-clay title in Rouen, made the semifinals in Madrid and the quarterfinals in Rome.

Swiatek, meanwhile, entered Roland Garros without a clay-court title for the first time since 2020. However, she won that 2020 Roland Garros championship anyway, and she still has a chance to take the crown for a fifth time after closing out Svitolina's stellar clay-court swing.

Swiatek is the fifth player in the Open Era, including women and men, to win 25 or more consecutive singles matches at Roland Garros. The rest of that list: Rafael Nadal, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles.

"I feel like on this court and overall, like, Roland Garros, I should always push until the end and fight for everything," Swiatek said. "Because there's more [probability] that I overcome some stuff rather than in other places. I just maybe believe it a little bit more."

Match moments: Tuesday’s first-set scoreline looks routine, but Svitolina did have three chances to break in the opening frame. Swiatek had to grind out a particularly tough hold for 4-1 to maintain her break advantage.

Once she got through that game, Swiatek and her signature forehand took control. In the next game, Swiatek used that wing to convert her fifth break point of another lengthy tussle and lead 5-1. She eased to the one-set lead from there.

As windy conditions intensified in the second set, Svitolina made her presence felt. The Ukrainian jumped out to a 3-1 lead before Swiatek regrouped, slamming rally forehands crosscourt to pull back on serve.

Still, Svitolina was two points away from taking the second set after a forehand winner gave her deuce at 5-4. Swiatek, though, was not to be denied, holding on for 5-5, then cranking a forehand return winner off of a second serve to break for 6-5.

Serving for the match, Swiatek summoned her second ace of the day to queue up double match point. Her third ace of the day followed immediately thereafter, and the Polish player was back in the Roland Garros semifinals, a place she is very familiar with.

wtatennis.com

The score of the match is a bit deceiving, there were a lot of deuce games, and Svitolina definitely started to push back more in the 2nd. 

Iga did a great job to not let Svitolina back into the match and close it out in 2. 

Conditions were quite tricky with huge guts of wind and the clay flying everywhere. Reminded me of when Rogar and Rafa played one year and it looked like they were in an orange desert. 

Up next it'll be Iga's biggest challenge yet Sabalenka  (rumor is it might rain so the semis might be played under a roof). 

Which would not make it easier for Iga, but we'll wait and see. 

It's gonna be a tough one but if anyone can handle Sabalenka's power and redirect it well it's Iga. Saba has added a lot of things to her game like coming to the net more so Iga we'll have to be on the look out for volley's and dropshots.

I know Aryna is fast but, Iga is still one of the best movers on clay so I believe she'll do better at that then Saba. It'll be interesting to see who's nerves hold up better. 

On paper Iga is the one with all the pressure being a 3 time defending champion, and Aryna is the underdog. 

But she's also a world #1 who hasn't won a Slam as the World number 1 yet, so you have to wonder whether that'll be a bit of a factor for nerves. 

We hope for better weather and as always take it point by point and believe. 

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek survives Rybakina to make it 25 straight at Roland Garros

 

The first eight games of Iga Swiatek's fourth-round match against Elena Rybakina were unlike anything we've seen at Roland Garros in recent years.

Four-time champion Iga Swiatek looked out of sorts on Court Philippe-Chatrier -- the same stage where she’s won the trophy each of the past three years. But on Sunday, she was a long way from that level, piling up 27 unforced errors in the first nine games and quickly falling behind to Rybakina, 6-1, 2-0.

But Swiatek was not about to let her 24-match winning streak in Paris end without a fight. A missed smash by No. 12 seed Rybakina on break point pulled Swiatek level -- and a comeback effort by the former World No. 1 was on the cards.

It required a titanic struggle in the third set, but by the end of 2 hours and 30 minutes, Swiatek was a 1-6, 6-3, 7-5 victor -- her 25th straight match won at the French Open.

"It means a lot," Swiatek said in postmatch press. "I think I needed that kind of win to feel these feelings that I'm able to win under pressure, and even if it's not going the right way, you know, still turn the match around to win it.

"For sure it's a great confirmation for me. ... Obviously it's great to also have full control over the match, but against great players, it's not always going to be possible. I'm happy that I fought, and I also problem-solved on court."

Svitolina next up: No. 5 seed Swiatek will now take on No. 13 seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine in the quarterfinals. Svitolina toppled last year's runner-up to Swiatek, Jasmine Paolini, earlier on Sunday, saving three match points in the process.


Swiatek leads their head-to-head 3-1. Svitolina ousted Swiatek at 2023 Wimbledon, but Swiatek won their other three meetings, including their only previous encounter on clay at 2021 Rome.

Swiatek stays stellar: Swiatek has seen her ranking slip from No. 1 to No. 5 over the past year, and she has not won a title since her championship here last year. This is the first year since 2020 that Swiatek has entered her best event without having won a title.

But she held off former Wimbledon champion Rybakina -- a player who, amazingly, had beaten Swiatek in both of their previous clay-court meetings. This time, Swiatek solved the puzzle, and she is now an incredible 39-2 at this event.

Third-set thrills: Swiatek posted a heroic effort to level the match at one set apiece, but any momentum she might have continued was counteracted by Rybakina, who used a huge rally backhand to literally knock the racquet out of Swiatek’s hands in a hold for 3-2.

The pair exchanged breaks through 4-4, and Swiatek seemed to break in the next game after a Rybakina double fault down break point. The call, however, was overturned, and the Kazakh eventually held on in that game to put herself a game away from snapping Swiatek’s streak.

The four-time champion, though, was not fazed. She threw down a thunderous love hold to reach 5-5, then got back in the lead after breaking Rybakina once again. Serving for the victory at 6-5, Swiatek’s forehand peaked when she needed it most, finding fiery shots from that wing to close out the grueling tussle.

"I haven't noticed that I made so many winners from my forehand, but for sure, I know it's a weapon," Swiatek said. "I like it on clay. ... It's a shot that I use to kind of lead in the points, so I'm glad it worked."

wtatennis.com

Iga Swiatek proved today why she is a 4-time Roland Garros Champion. 

What a comeback!. 

I have to admit when Iga lost the first set ( almost got bageled) and then got broken in the 2nd I thought the match was over. 

I was ready too say too good from Rybakina and then drown in a pool of tears. 

But Iga just did not give up she fought in the last game to not get bageled and took her opportunities once Rybakina's level dropped. 

That first set from Rybakina was nearly perfect Iga wasn't actually playing badly but Rybakina didn't give her any room to breathe and just kept hitting winners. 

Not a whole lot anyone could have done. 

The set was over so fast Iga barely had time to be shocked or mad. 

I actually wanted her to get mad and yell at one point because she wasn't showing any emotion. 

But that turned out to be a good thing because she kept her focus, didn't panic or get too frustrated just made Rybakina hit one more shot with her trademark foot speed. 

The other thing she did was something many have been telling her to do for years but she has as always been too stubborn to and that's adjust her position and moving back on return. 

Thus making Rybakina hit more balls and put more pressure on her serve.

That one volley Rybakina missed at net turned out to be the key to the whole match.  

In the final set when Rybakina's double fault was over ruled and Iga didn't get the break I once again thought that was it. 

But Iga showed real mental resilience today (something she has been missing since Australia). It was absolute joy to see. If this win doesn't help with confidence in her game again I don't know what will. 

This was truly something else!. 

Next Iga will play Svitolina who'll also be full of confidence having survived 3 match points, so it will not be easy. 

But none of Iga's remaining matches are. 

  If she wants to win the title this year she's really going to have to come up with her best tennis. 

Svitolina will definitely fight for every point so there'll no doubt be a lot of physical points involved. 

Hopefully though Iga can use that to her advantage and tire Svitolina out. 

For now we enjoy this spectacular win, and as always take it match by match and believe.

Jazda!.

Stats

25 - Iga Swiatek is the fifth player in the Open Era to win 25+ consecutive Singles matches at Roland Garros after Rafael Nadal, Chris Evert, Bjorn Borg and Monica Seles. Historical.

50 - Iga Swiatek has made their 50thcareer WTA level quarter-final (excluding team events): since 2019, when she made her first in Lugano, she is the second player to have 50+ in that span along with Aryna Sabalenka. Golden.