Iga Swiatek wins 10th straight match, marches into Bad Homburg Open semifinal

Berlin [Germany], June 30 : The World No.1 Iga Swiatek continues to break new ground on grass as the Polish star player advanced to the grass-court semifinal of her career after defeating Anna Blinkova 6-3, 6-2 in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Bad Homburg Open.

In the semifinal clash, Swiatek will take on Italy's Lucia Bronzetti next for a spot in the grass-court final.

Swiatek beat Blinkova in her first competition since successfully defending her title at Roland Garros, extending her current winning run to 10 games. In her first encounter in Bad Homburg, Swiatek lost the first set to Tatjana Maria but has since lost just 11 games in six sets.

"I'm happy that I can play such solid tennis. Usually, there's not much time to practice on grass so I'm pretty happy that I used that time 100 percent between Roland Garros and Wimbledon. I'm happy that I'm feeling confident and hopefully I can play like that for the next two weeks," WTA.com quoted Swiatek as saying.

Swiatek finished the 72-minute match with a remarkably clean stat sheet, hitting 24 winners to just seven unforced errors.

"I wouldn't put myself close to being an expert on grass, but I'm making progress and that's the most important thing for me. The time here really helped me. Every year I feel like it's easier to get used to the conditions," Swiatek said.

On Friday, Swiatek will play No. 65 Lucia Bronzetti in the semifinals. The 24-year-old Italian defeated Varvara Gracheva of France 6-4, 6-3 to reach to her maiden grass-court semifinal.

No. 60 Emma Navarro, who qualified for her first tour-level semifinal after Rebaka Masarova was forced to quit due to a knee injury after leading 7-6(2), 1-1, will play in the second semifinal. Liudmila Samsonova or Katerina Siniakova, the No. 2 seed, will be the opponent for the 22-year-old American.

Samsonova and Siniakova had their quarterfinal match halted due to light after splitting the opening two sets. On Friday, that contest will continue.