Iga Swiatek into a career first semi-final at Wimbledon

Iga Swiatek has broken new ground on grass. No. 8 seed Swiatek of Poland is into her very first Wimbledon semifinal after a 6-2, 7-5 quarterfinal victory over No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova
 on No. 1 Court on Wednesday.

"This year, I feel like I developed as a player, and I had time to practice a little bit more," Swiatek said after her win. "Match by match, my confidence, for sure, went up so that I can use it on this championship.

"Just happy with the work that I've been doing and proud of myself, yeah."

Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who has spent 125 weeks ranked World No. 1 in her career, needed 1 hour and 49 minutes to overcome first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Samsonova. Swiatek remains undefeated against Samsonova, now leading their head-to-head 5-0.

Growth on the turf: This has to stand as Swiatek's career-best grass-court swing. She's gone 8-1 on the surface this year -- the first time she has attained that many wins on grass in a calendar year.

After not having made a Hologic WTA Tour final for over a year, Swiatek made her first-ever grass-court final two weeks ago in Bad Homburg (finishing runner-up to Jessica Pegula

Now she has made the final four at Wimbledon for the first time, eclipsing her previous best Wimbledon result, when she reached the 2023 quarterfinals before losing to Elina Svitolina

This result makes Swiatek the fourth active player to reach the semifinals at all four Grand Slam events, joining three other players who have been World No. 1: Aryna Sabalenka, Victoria Azarenka and Karolina Pliskova.

Bencic awaits: Swiatek will face World No. 35 Belinda Bencic in the semifinals. Swiatek has a 3-1 head-to-head lead over new mom Bencic, including a grass-court win at 2023 Wimbledon.

"I can only imagine how hard it is to come back after pregnancy," Swiatek said. "We practiced in the first event this year in United Cup, but it already seems like she's ready to be back in the rhythm.

"For sure she has the game to play well here on grass. Yeah, I never doubted that she can't come back after pregnancy. She seems like she's in a good mood and she's playing well."

Match moments: Swiatek had to stave off a break point in the opening game of the match, but she was unstoppable in the rest of the first set. The World No. 4 was a perfect 10-for-10 when she got her first serve into play in the opening frame.

Swiatek methodically eased to a 6-2, 4-2, 40-0 lead, putting herself five points away from a routine win. However, Samsonova made her move at nearly the last possible moment, finding more margin on her rocket groundstrokes. Samsonova came all the way back in that game, pulling back on serve at 4-3 with a forehand return winner.

Suddenly, the second set became a real battle, with some excellent angles from Samsonova forcing errors from the former World No.1. At 5-5, Swiatek had to fight back from 0-30 down to keep herself in front -- but she did so with some powerful forehands of her own.

At 6-5, Swiatek at last reached double match point once Samsonova sent a backhand wide. On her second match point, Swiatek fired a return winner to seal victory and become the first Polish woman to make the Wimbledon semifinals since Agnieszka Radwanska in 2015.

"Obviously if your opponent is winning two games in a row and is breaking you back, you need to change something 'cause you can't let her keep winning," Swiatek said. "So I just know that what I need to do and I try to focus on that.

"Anytime the momentum changes, you just need to get back to work and do something better. That's it."

wtatennis.com

Iga Swiatek is a Wimbledon semi-finalist, if I'm dreaming please no one wake me up. 

If you told me at the beginning of the year that Iga would lose in the semis of Roland Garros but make it into the semis of Wimbledon I would have laughed. 

She has now reached the semis of every Grand Slam the first Polish woman ever to do so in the Open Era.  And this in what everyone is calling Iga's worst season.

What an achievement. 

I was so nervous going into this one because I knew Samsonova can be a real danger on the grass but it was Iga who dominated the first set. 

In the 2nd Samsonova picked up her level after Iga's dropped a fraction and allowed her to get back into the match. 

Really it should have been a 6/2 6/2 score line (with Iga being love 40 up at 4/2). Despite that Iga didn't panic, yell or gesture at her box, she stayed calm and got right back to work changing her strategy. 

That calmness and confidence has been missing all season (replaced by tightness and stress). 

I think I'm most happy with Iga's attitude here she seems to really be enjoying the experience (despite I'm sure it all being plenty stressful still). 

But she's smiling more and enjoying her game, and seeing the fruits of her hard work paying off. 

It almost feels like a weight has been lifted off her after losing Roland Garros and she just wiped the slate clean.

I want her to get into the final so bad, I just want her to break that semi final hurdle in Slams this year I think it'd just boost her confidence sky high for the rest of the season.

Belinda Bencic will be another different challenge someone with plenty of comfort and experience on the grass. 

The equalizer in this being both of them in their first ever career Wimbledon semi. Nerves will definitely play a factor on both sides (despite Iga being a 5 time Grand Slam champ).

I think Iga unlike Andreeva will be able to get Bencic to move side to side more, and will certainly be able to outlast her physically.

Both return well, and both have great backhands though I think Iga's forehand might have a slight edge (especially when it's really on). 

If Iga can serve as high as she did in her last match that'll take a lot of pressure off too .

But I'd say Iga has a better 2nd serve than Belinda. So really it'll come down to the intangibles, who handles their nerves and occasion better. 

Who stays calms in moments of pressure. I think Iga's mental toughness is often under estimated and under appreciated I believe that might just help take her over the line.  

Iga has given me a lot of reasons to be proud of my Polish roots over the past 5 years, but today might just be one of the proudest yet. 

I hope she goes into tomorrow uninhibited like she has nothing to lose because she has already achieved above and beyond at just 24 years of age.

All that said I'll be cheering my loudest tomorrow.

Jazda!

40 - Iga Swiatek is the first player to claim 40+ WTA level wins for 4+ consecutive seasons (2022-2025) since Karolina Pliskova (six in a row between 2014 and 2019). Continuity.