Breaking new ground: Swiatek moves into first Wimbledon semifinal
Iga Swiatek has broken new ground on grass.
No. 8 seed Swiatek of Poland is into her very first Wimbledon semifinal after a 6-2, 7-5 quarterfinal victory over No. 19 seed Liudmila Samsonova on No. 1 Court on Wednesday.
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"This year, I feel like I developed as a player, and I had time to practice a little bit more," Swiatek said after her win. "Match by match, my confidence, for sure, went up so that I can use it on this championship.
"Just happy with the work that I've been doing and proud of myself, yeah."
Five-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek, who has spent 125 weeks ranked World No. 1 in her career, needed 1 hour and 49 minutes to overcome first-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Samsonova. Swiatek remains undefeated against Samsonova, now leading their head-to-head 5-0.
Growth on the turf: This has to stand as Swiatek's career-best grass-court swing. She's gone 8-1 on the surface this year -- the first time she has attained that many wins on grass in a calendar year.
After not having made a Hologic WTA Tour final for over a year, Swiatek made her first-ever grass-court final two weeks ago in Bad Homburg (finishing runner-up to Jessica Pegula).
Now she has made the final four at Wimbledon for the first time, eclipsing her previous best Wimbledon result, when she reached the 2023 quarterfinals before losing to Elina Svitolina.
This result makes Swiatek the fourth active player to reach the semifinals at all four Grand Slam events, joining three other players who have been World No. 1: Aryna Sabalenka, Victoria Azarenka and Karolina Pliskova.
Bencic awaits: Swiatek will face World No. 35 Belinda Bencic in the semifinals. Swiatek has a 3-1 head-to-head lead over new mom Bencic, including a grass-court win at 2023 Wimbledon.
"I can only imagine how hard it is to come back after pregnancy," Swiatek said. "We practiced in the first event this year in United Cup, but it already seems like she's ready to be back in the rhythm.
"For sure she has the game to play well here on grass. Yeah, I never doubted that she can't come back after pregnancy. She seems like she's in a good mood and she's playing well."
Match moments: Swiatek had to stave off a break point in the opening game of the match, but she was unstoppable in the rest of the first set. The World No. 4 was a perfect 10-for-10 when she got her first serve into play in the opening frame.
Swiatek methodically eased to a 6-2, 4-2, 40-0 lead, putting herself five points away from a routine win. However, Samsonova made her move at nearly the last possible moment, finding more margin on her rocket groundstrokes. Samsonova came all the way back in that game, pulling back on serve at 4-3 with a forehand return winner.
Suddenly, the second set became a real battle, with some excellent angles from Samsonova forcing errors from the former World No.1. At 5-5, Swiatek had to fight back from 0-30 down to keep herself in front -- but she did so with some powerful forehands of her own.
At 6-5, Swiatek at last reached double match point once Samsonova sent a backhand wide. On her second match point, Swiatek fired a return winner to seal victory and become the first Polish woman to make the Wimbledon semifinals since Agnieszka Radwanska in 2015.
"Obviously if your opponent is winning two games in a row and is breaking you back, you need to change something 'cause you can't let her keep winning," Swiatek said. "So I just know that what I need to do and I try to focus on that.
"Anytime the momentum changes, you just need to get back to work and do something better. That's it."