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.
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.
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