French Open winner Iga Swiatek easily advanced to the semi-finals of the lawn tennis tournament in Bad Homburg. The world number one from Poland won the quarter-finals 6: 3, 6: 2 against the Russian Anna Blinkova, who was seeded number ninth.
Swiatek’s next opponent is the unseeded Italian Lucia Bronzetti. The outsider previously won 6: 4, 6: 3 against Varvara Gracheva, who started for France. Bronzetti is only number 65 in the world rankings.
Gracheva was seeded in eighth place at the Bad Homburg preparatory tournament for Wimbledon. The 22-year-old native of Russia has just changed her nationality. This was a “long-term plan” and has been an issue for several years, Gracheva said in Bad Homburg. She hasn’t picked up her new passport yet. Gracheva was born in Moscow but trains in Cannes.
The sporting highlight of the Wimbledon grass season begins on Monday. The finals of the third Grand Slam tournament of the season are on July 15 (women) and July 16 (men).