Iga Swiatek withdraws from Bad Homburg Open with illness

Bad Homburg (Germany), June 30 Top seed Iga Swiatek was on Friday forced to withdraw from her Bad Homburg Open semifinal against Lucia Bronzetti due to GI illness.

"I'm so sorry but I have to pull out of my match today," Swiatek said in a statement on Twitter.

"I had a restless night because of some fever and possible food poisoning. I'm not able to perform today and I need to take care of myself. I hope I'll be fine soon. Your support in Bad Homburg was amazing, thank you," she added.

Swiatek had defeated opponents including Wimbledon semifinalist Tatjana Maria and No.9 seed Anna Blinkova to reach her first grass-court semifinal in Bad Homburg. Having captured her fourth Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last month, she will carry a 10-match winning streak into Wimbledon next week, where she opens up against Zhu Lin.

Meanwhile, No.65-ranked Bronzetti gets a walkover and advances to her second final of 2023, and first of her career on grass. The Italian won her first WTA Tour trophy in Rabat last month, in the week preceding Roland Garros.

Bronzetti's opponent in the final will be either No.2 seed Liudmila Samsonova, Katerina Siniakova or Emma Navarro. Samsonova and Siniakova's quarterfinal match was delayed overnight because of darkness at one set all.