Iga Swiatek rallies from set down to add another bagel in victory over Tatjana Maria at Bad Homburg Open
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ByEurosport
Updated 26/06/2023 at 19:34 GMT
Grass is the surface Iga Swiatek is yet to conquer at Grand Slam level, but she will be strongly fancied to back up her success at the French Open in SW19. The world No. 1 is putting the finishing touches to her Wimbledon preparations in Germany and she was given a workout before securing victory over home favourite Tatjana Maria in three sets on Monday evening.
'Really proud' - Swiatek on 'rollercoaster' final against Muchova at Roland-Garros
Iga Swiatek rallied from a set down to claim an ultimately comfortable 5-7 6-2 6-0 win over Tatjana Maria at the Bad Homburg Open.
The world No. 1 looked in trouble on the German grass when dropping the first set, but the Pole warmed to her task and made short work of sets two and three to claim victory in one hour and 52 minutes.
Wimbledon is looming large on the horizon, and victory in Bad Homburg was Swiatek's first on grass in 2023.
Swiatek was the first to make her mark on the match after breaking Maria’s serve in the opening game.
After holding to love, Swiatek forced two more break points on the German’s next service game, but Maria managed to recover to get herself on the board.
It felt like it would be a fairly routine evening for Swiatek until Maria broke back to level proceedings at 4-4.
From there, the opener became a battle for Swiatek as she missed the chance to break and then had to serve to save the set.
Seizing the momentum, Maria forced a break point and, after following in a sliced backhand, watched as Swiatek drove the ball into the net to hand the first set to her opponent.
With four majors in her trophy cabinet, Swiatek’s winning mentality was never to be questioned and she fought back superbly in the second set.
She won the first two games of the second to love and dominated her opponent to take the set in just over half an hour.
After seeing Swiatek claim the second set, Maria did not appear happy about the match continuing in fading but not terrible light.
Whether her focus was affected was not clear, but she was broken at the start of the third. Swiatek set it up with a crunching forehand and claimed it with a lovely backhand pass as Maria attempted to crowd the net.
Swiatek was never in trouble from the moment she secured the early break in the third, and it came as no surprise when she added the 15th bagel set of the season to her resume.
Earlier, British wild card Sonay Kartal gave No. 5 seed Bianca Andreescu a scare, before the Canadian recovered to progress 6-2 3-6 7-5.
GB's Dart and Burrage through at Eastbourne
At the Eastbourne International there was success for Britain’s Harriet Dart and Jodie Burrage.
Dart recovered from a poor start to secure a three-set victory over China’s Zhang Shuai - who sits 105 places above her in the world rankings.
In the last 16, Dart will go up against either two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova or Jelena Ostapenko.
Burrage lost in qualifying for Eastbourne but was given another chance to compete as a lucky loser.
She took full advantage of the opportunity as she recovered from going a set down to defeat American Lauren Davis 4-6 6-4 6-3.
Coco Gauff or Bernarda Pera will be her opponent in the next round.
Wimbledon qualifying is also taking place this week, and a British quartet of men’s players have taken a step closer to the main draw.
Johannus Monday, Toby Samuel, Charles Broom and Billy Harris all won their first matches and are now two rounds away from booking their place at the Grand Slam.
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