Swiatek into first 2025 final in Bad Homburg, will face Pegula
Iga Swiatek will contest her first final in more than a year -- and her first career final on grass courts -- at the Bad Homburg Open after defeating Jasmine Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in Friday's semifinals.
Bad Homburg: Draws | Scores | Order of Play
Fourth seed Swiatek improved her record over Paolini to 5-0 with the 1 hour and 6 minute victory -- her first head-to-head meeting with the Italian this season. She largely led wire-to-wire in her sixth Top 10 win of the year, outside of the early stages of the second set where Paolini broke her serve in the first game. The World No. 4 converted the only break point she held against Swiatek in the match in that game, but surrendered her serve to love immediately after and never led again.
Swiatek now owns 50 career victories over the Top 10 -- but until Friday, she hadn't earned any of those on grass.
"I wasn't expecting to win this match, so I'm happy that I just did my job," Swiatek said afterwards. "I knew how I wanted to play and I just went for it. 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."
Looking to win her first title since she triumphed at Roland Garros last spring, Swiatek will face No. 1 seed Jessica Pegula in Sunday's final. Pegula trailed unseeded Linda Noskova by a set and a break in the second semifinal, but broke the Czech to stay in the match and won 10 of the last 11 games in her 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-1 comeback.
Pegula seeks her third title of 2025, and first since winning the Credit One Charleston Open in April. Swiatek is 6-4 in the head-to-head all-time, but Pegula won two of the three meetings last year and three of the last five.
They have never played on grass, and Pegula said she hoped that would serve as an X-factor in her title hopes as Swiatek seeks her first title on what has historically been her least-successful surface.
"I'll try to use the surface as best I can," Pegula said after her semifinal win. "I hit pretty low and flat, and hopefully that will try to disrupt her rhythm a little bit, but we'll see."
