Iga Swiatek brushes aside Jil Teichmann to reach first grass quarter-final at Bad Homburg Open ahead of Wimbledon
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Published 28/06/2023 at 17:07 GMT
There have been question marks about Iga Swiatek's ability to perform on grass but on Wednesday she went some way to answering her critics as she reached a first career quarter-final on the surface. The world No. 1 earned a straight-sets victory over Jil Teichmann in the Bad Homburg Open, and the Polish star admits she is finding it a "little bit easier every year" to play on the grass court.
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Iga Swiatek reached her first grass court quarter-final following a convincing 6-3 6-1 victory over Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann in the Bad Homburg Open.
It is Swiatek’s 37th win of the season but just her eighth career victory on grass.
The match took just one hour and 19 minutes as Swiatek dominated with 14 winners, converting four of her five break points.
The world No. 1 admitted she was feeling "pretty excited" to have finally made it to the last eight of a grass court competition.
"I'm pretty happy that I have the opportunity to play more matches here and for sure today was a good day," Swiatek said.
"I'm pretty happy with my performance and I felt like I had everything under control so that's great."
It was put to Swiatek that the grass court isn't her favourite surface, but the world No. 1 responded: "Well, maybe it'll become one."
She added: "But for now I'm just kind of focusing on the process and learning as much as possible.
"But every day, I feel like I'm getting more experience and I'm growing up, and it's a little bit easier every year to kind of convert my tennis from clay court style to more grass court style.
"But I think it ill come with experience. I'm pretty positive about the future on grass."
Teichmann has caused several shocks against some of the best players in the women’s game throughout her career but after a bright start never looked like causing Swiatek trouble.
The world No. 1 has admitted to not feeling entirely comfortable on grass and initially she appeared to be struggling on her serve as she was forced to fend off three break points to finally hold after 16 minutes.
As well as exerting pressure on Swiatek's serve, Teichmann was comfortably holding her own as she held to love to take the third game with ease.
But Swiatek’s confidence began to grow as she responded with a much-needed hold to love of her own before taking control of the set with the first break of the match.
And in the ninth game, Swiatek sealed the set in 44 minutes with a second break to love, nullifying her left-handed opponent in style.
Swiatek picked up where she left off in the second set, comfortably holding before breaking her opponent’s serve in the fourth game.
Teichmann was by no means making it easy for Swiatek, but her use of the forehand was proving too strong, and the top seed delivered her fourth break of serve as she closed in on victory.
The Swiss threatened to break Swiatek’s serve in what proved to be the final game of the match as the Pole saved another break point before closing out the match.
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You can watch daily highlights from Wimbledon at 10pm on Eurosport 2 and discovery+ from July 3, as well as the two singles finals live on July 15 and 16.
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