How Iga Swiatek reached outstanding milestone and clinched grass-court first in Bad Homburg.

Iga Swiatek accomplished a grass-court first with her dominant semi-final victory over Jasmine Paolini at the 2025 Bad Homburg Open.

The five-time major champion dismantled world No 4 Paolini 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour at the WTA 500 tournament to progress to her maiden final on grass.

Swiatek broke Paolini three times in the opening set and twice in the second set as she improved her record against the 29-year-old Italian to 4-0.

The world No 8 was broken only once, in the opening game of the second set, as she posted lofty numbers on serve: 76% of first serves in; 81% of first serve points won; 50% of second serve points won; four aces and zero double faults.

In her on-court interview, Swiatek said: “I’m super happy. I wasn’t expecting to win this match, so I’m happy that I just did my job.

“I knew how I wanted to play and I just went for it. I’m happy that I kept the momentum going until the end of the match because against Jasmine, you can’t let her get back to the game because she’s a fighter. So I just wanted to go for it, and go for my shots.”

Swiatek’s victory against Paolini was a milestone 50th career win over an opponent in the top 10 of the WTA Rankings — and her first on a grass court.

The 24-year-old is the first woman born in the 2000s to register 50 top 1o wins.

Having started the tournament ranked eighth, Swiatek has surged to world No 4 in the Live WTA Rankings with the 325 points she has earned for reaching the final. She will leapfrog Paolini, Zheng Qinwen, Mirra Andreeva and Madison Keys when the rankings update.

Swiatek’s run in Bad Homburg has ended an unwanted drought: she had not reached a final since winning the 2024 French Open over a year ago

The Pole will aim to win her 23rd WTA Tour title when she faces third-ranked Jessica Pegula in Germany.

She is seeking a 10th consecutive victory in a final, with her last defeat in a championship match coming against Aryna Sabalenka at the 2023 Madrid Open.

What is Swiatek’s record against Pegula?
Swiatek holds a 6-4 head-to-head record against Pegula, and this will be the pair’s first encounter on grass.

Pegula spoke about facing Swiatek on grass after her 6-7(2), 7-5, 6-1 semi-final win over Linda Noskova.

“I’ll try to use the surface as best I can,” said the 31-year-old American.

“I hit pretty low and flat, and hopefully that will try to disrupt her rhythm a little bit, but we’ll see.”