Krejcikova picks up injury scare ahead of Wimbledon title defence
PAMedia/DPA
London
Barbora Krejcikova is an injury doubt ahead of her Wimbledon title defence after withdrawing from the Eastbourne Open due to a thigh problem.
The world number 17, who defeated Jasmine Paolini in the women's singles final at Wimbledon last year, was due to face France's Varvara Gracheva in the quarter-finals at Devonshire Park.
Czech player Krejcikova initially felt the issue on Wednesday during her second-round victory over Britain's Jodie Burrage.
The injury worsened overnight and, with her opening match at Wimbledon scheduled for Tuesday, the 29-year-old is awaiting the outcome of a scan.
'I'm very sorry to have to withdraw from my quarter-final today in Eastbourne as I'm having some soreness in my right thigh,' said Krejcikova.
'Overnight it just didn't get any better; it actually got worse. I think it's better with Wimbledon in the next couple of days just to rest it and to see what's going on and to resolve that.'
Krejcikova played two gruelling, three-set singles matches on the south coast.
Having saved two match points en route to defeating British number four Harriet Dart in two hours and 40 minutes in round one, the second seed saved three more in her tie-break triumph over Burrage, which lasted two hours and 24 minutes.
Swiatek, Paolini set Bad Homburg semi meeting
No. 4 seed Iga Swiatekwill bid to reach the first grass-court final of her career at the Bad Homburg Open against No. 2 seed 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.
'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.
'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 semi-final, both of which have come in Bad Homburg, where she also made the last four in 2023.
While Swiatek has yet to reach a grass-court final, Paolini memorably ticked that box with a crowd-pleasing run to last year's Wimbledon final. This week, she's bounced back from an opening-round loss in Berlin last week to Ons Jabeur, and she's also done it with clutch play.
After saving set points in both sets to edge Leylah Fernandez in two tiebreaks, Paolini had to hold off a pair of valiant comebacks from Haddad Maia. She led 5-3 in the first set and 3-1 in the second, only for the Brazilian to peg her back at 5-5 both times. But Paolini was the more consistently aggressive player throughout both sets, and she kept her foot to the floor in the tightest moments. She improved to 4-0 against Haddad Maia overall -- and for the first time had come through one of their encounters in straight sets.
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