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Associated Press
18 hours ago
- Sport
- Associated Press
Swiatek routs Paolini in Hamburg for her first grass final. Pegula awaits
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Five-time major champion Iga Swiatek reached her first final on grass and first final in more than a year at the Bad Homburg Open on Friday. World No. 8 Swiatek beat No. 4 Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals and improved her record against the 2024 Wimbledon finalist to 5-0. 'I wasn't expecting to win this match, so I'm happy that I just did my job,' Swiatek said. '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.' To win her first title since the 2024 French Open, Swiatek will have to go through No. 3 Jessica Pegula. Pegula outlasted Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1. Pegula will appear in her fifth final this year, including titles in Austin, Texas, and Charleston, South Carolina. ___ AP tennis:
Yahoo
18 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Swiatek routs Paolini in Hamburg for her first grass final. Pegula awaits
US Jessica Pegula hits a backhand against Czech Republic's Linda Noskova in their semifinal match at the WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after beating Italy's Jasmine Paolini in their semifinal match at the WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after beating Italy's Jasmine Paolini in their semifinal match at the WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) US Jessica Pegula hits a backhand against Czech Republic's Linda Noskova in their semifinal match at the WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) Poland's Iga Swiatek celebrates after beating Italy's Jasmine Paolini in their semifinal match at the WTA tennis tournament in Bad Homburg, Germany, Friday, June 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst) HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — Five-time major champion Iga Swiatek reached her first final on grass and first final in more than a year at the Bad Homburg Open on Friday. World No. 8 Swiatek beat No. 4 Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in the semifinals and improved her record against the 2024 Wimbledon finalist to 5-0. Advertisement 'I wasn't expecting to win this match, so I'm happy that I just did my job,' Swiatek said. '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.' To win her first title since the 2024 French Open, Swiatek will have to go through No. 3 Jessica Pegula. Pegula outlasted Linda Noskova of the Czech Republic 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1. Pegula will appear in her fifth final this year, including titles in Austin, Texas, and Charleston, South Carolina. ___ AP tennis:
New York Times
20 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Iga Swiatek and Alex Eala achieve firsts on the grass as Wimbledon comes into view
'I didn't expect to win this match' isn't a phrase that comes out of a five-time Grand Slam champion's mouth very often. But after Iga Świątek cruised past Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 to reach the first WTA Tour grass-court final of her career, it was the first thing on her mind. Perhaps Paolini being a Wimbledon finalist last year was a factor. Perhaps Świątek never going beyond the quarterfinals in south-west London was too. But for 16 games Friday in Bad Homburg, it was the Pole who looked like the master of the grass. She's looked that way for most of the tournament in Germany, using her serve like she hasn't done for a while to get out of adversity against the powerful players that have troubled her in the past. Advertisement Against Paolini, however, Świątek was dominant. Her confidence on her forehand oozed out into heavy, sharply angled balls that kept Paolini pinned behind the baseline, stopping her from coming into the net, where she has the edge on Świątek. She leapt on Paolini's serve at every opportunity, zipping return winners past her opponent — something she has been more familiar with happening to her in recent times. Świątek broke Paolini five times and had break points for a sixth, ultimately easing into her first final since last year's French Open, in which she will face world No. 3 Jessica Pegula. It caps a strange 12 months for Świątek, in which she has had her less-than-perfect results scrutinized at her best events over and above her improvements across the calendar. She is No. 3 in the WTA Tour rankings race, just a few hundred points behind No. 2 Coco Gauff, and made the semifinals at both the Australian and French Opens. She was a point from the final in Melbourne and she has made the semifinals of five other tournaments, including in Bad Homburg. But she has become synonymous with era-defining excellence on clay, and so her dips from that excellence, which have included at times heavy defeats, have taken greater space than her successes. The same cannot be said for Alexandra Eala, who so memorably beat Świątek at the Miami Open in March. On the same day as Świątek's success, Eala, 20, became the first Filipino to reach a WTA Tour final, beating Varvara Gracheva 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 at Eastbourne in the UK. It's the latest in a succession of firsts for Eala and Filipino tennis, and it is not one of her biggest wins: in Miami, she beat Madison Keys and Jelena Ostapenko, two more Grand Slam champions, as well as Świątek. But Eala's use of angle, a devastatingly powerful and disguised down-the-line forehand, and an improved serve — which has looked attackable throughout her rise inside the WTA top 100 — could foretell more success on the grass, a surface which appears to suit her game. Her mastery of the wind on the south coast of the UK, which buffeted across the courts and tested players' limits, also showed off her ability to adapt the length of her swing and to redirect an incoming ball rather than swinging out on every shot. Advertisement At Wimbledon, she will achieve another first. Eala will play defending champion Barbora Krejčíková on Centre Court, and with Krejčíková having withdrawn from Eastbourne with a thigh injury, the ingredients are there for another announcement of her ability to the tennis world. First, Eala will go in search of her first WTA Tour title, with a final against Maya Joint Saturday, the same day that Świątek and Pegula will play. (Photos: Getty Images)
CNA
21 hours ago
- Sport
- CNA
Swiatek cruises past second-seed Paolini to reach first grass final
BAD HOMBURG, Germany :Five-times Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek crushed second seed Jasmine Paolini 6-1 6-3 on Friday to reach the Bad Homburg Open final and stay in the hunt for her first career title on grass. She will face American top seed Jessica Pegula, who had to dig deep to beat Czech Linda Noskova 6-7(2) 7-5 6-1 in just over two hours. With Wimbledon starting next week, Swiatek, the former world number one, showed she was on the right track on the surface, outclassing the Italian, last year's Wimbledon finalist. "I am super happy and I was not expecting this. I just did my job and I knew what I wanted to play and I went for it," Swiatek said in a post-match interview. "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." Swiatek has a 5-0 lead in their head-to-head matches. The Pole, who has won the French Open four times along with one U.S. Open, did not play any other grass tournaments this season ahead of next week's Wimbledon start, instead opting for a week of training in Mallorca before competing in Bad Homburg. She was never troubled by the Italian in the first set as she raced through it in 29 minutes courtesy of three breaks. The pair traded breaks at the start of the second set but Paolini continued to struggle to hold serve and contain the aggressive Pole who went 4-2 up. Swiatek sealed victory with a forehand winner on her third match point to book a final spot against Pegula, who had to work much harder to come from a set down and oust the talented 20-year-old Czech. Noskova had Pegula on the ropes, having won the first set and leading 5-4 in the second before the American pulled herself together, started returning better and completed her comeback on her third match point. "She was serving really good and I could not get a read on it," Pegula said. "Then I was able to start reading it. I am happy that I could put myself back in the match." "I feel when she is firing on all cylinders, she is really really good," Pegula said of Swiatek, her opponent in the final.
Reuters
21 hours ago
- Sport
- Reuters
WTA roundup: Iga Swiatek reaches first grass final
June 27 - Fourth-seeded Iga Swiatek of Poland reached her first final of 2025 and her first ever on grass with a swift victory Friday at the Bad Homburg Open in Germany. Swiatek only faced one break point in a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of No. 2 seed Jasmine Paolini of Italy in just 66 minutes. It was the five-time Grand Slam winner's 50th career win against a top-10 opponent -- her first on grass. Her opponent in Saturday's final will be top-seeded Jessica Pegula, who trailed 5-3 in the second set before rallying for a 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1 win against unseeded Czech Linda Noskova. Noskova struck 15 aces and was in control before Pegula swept 10 of the last 11 games to win in 2 hours and 7 minutes. Lexus Eastbourne Open Alexandra Eala made history by becoming the first player from the Philippines to reach a WTA final, outlasting Varvara Gracheva of France 7-5, 2-6, 6-3 in Eastbourne, England. Eala, 20, saved eight of 15 break points and won the last three games to finish off the 2-hour, 22-minute triumph. She will face 19-year-old Australian Maya Joint, who reached her first grass-court final with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia. Saturday's final will mark the youngest title match in terms of combined age at Eastbourne since 18-year-old Tracy Austin defeated 16-year-old Andrea Jaeger in 1981. --Field Level Media
