World No.1 Iga Swiatek advanced to her first-career grass-court quarterfinal after defeating Switzerland's Jil Teichmann 6-3, 6-1 in the Round of 16 at the Bad Homburg Open.
Swiatek will next face Anna Blinkova.
The key game came early for Swiatek, who saved three break points in her opening service game to come through an 18-point game and hold. Teichmann did not see another break point until Swiatek's final service game of the match.
"I think it's my first grass-court quarterfinal, so pretty excited," Swiatek said on court. "For sure, today was a good day. I was happy with my performance. I felt like I had everything under control and that's great."
After fighting off break points in the opening set, Swiatek earned her first chance to break three games later. She converted, breaking Teichmann for a 3-2 lead with a well-struck tweener. With a break in hand, Swiatek cruised for the remainder of the match by controlling the baseline and keeping the Swiss on the run.
Serving for her ninth consecutive victory at 6-3, 5-1, Swiatek coolly saved two break points from 15-40 down to close out the match in 79 minutes. She finished with 14 winners to 16 unforced errors and saved all five break points she faced. Since getting broken to lose the opening set of her tournament to Tatjana Maria, Swiatek has not been broken. She has lost just six games across those four sets.
"It's getting easier every year to convert my clay-court style to more grass-court style," Swiatek said. "I think it will come with experience. I have a coach who knows how to coach players who are good on grass court like Aga Radwanska, so I'm pretty positive about my future on grass."
Swiatek will next face No.39 Blinkova, who defeated Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 6-2. It will be the first meeting between the two.
In earlier results, Italy's Lucia Bronzetti came from a set down to defeat Mayar Sherif 1-6, 7-6(2), 6-3 to advance to her first grass-court quarterfinal. Bronzetti will face France's Varvara Gracheva.
The remaining quarterfinals will see No.2 seed Liudmila Samsonova take on Katerina Siniakova and Spain's Rebeka Masarova will face Emma Navarro.
Step by step Iga is definitely figuring this whole grass thing out.
An even more solid performance than her previous match.
You could actually see her confidence growing through her shots as the match went on.
She's also showing real patience in point construction on grass which is great.
Jazda Iga!
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