Five-time Grand Slam champion Iga Swiatek reached a first WTA Tour grass-court final with a crushing victory over Wimbledon runner-up Jasmine Paolini at Bad Homburg.
Poland’s Swiatek, a former junior champion at Wimbledon, beat the Italian 6-1 6-3.
The former world number one has won 12 titles on hard courts and 10 on the clay.
Swiatek reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon in 2023 but has not gone beyond the fourth round in any of her other four appearances there.
Victory over world number five Paolini is also Swiatek’s first over a top-10 player on the grass.
“I am super happy – I was not expecting this,” Swiatek, 24, said.
“I just did my job, knew what I wanted to play and I went for it.”
She will face top seed Jessica Pegula in Saturday’s final, with Wimbledon beginning on Monday.
American Pegula fought back to beat Czech Linda Noskova 6-7 (2-7) 7-5 6-1.
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Swiatek broke Paolini’s serve three times to take the first set in just 29 minutes.
Paolini went a quick break up in the second set but Swiatek, one of the best front-runners on the women’s tour, reeled off six of the final eight games to secure victory.
The Pole, who has won four French Open titles and one at the US Open, has not played any other grass-court tournaments this year, opting for a week of training in Mallorca before competing at Bad Homburg.
Last year she played no competitive tennis between her French Open win and the start of Wimbledon.
Meanwhile at Eastbourne, Alexandra Eala beat Frenchwoman Varvara Gracheva 7-5 2-6 6-3 to reach the final.
Eala – who memorably stunned Swiatek at the Miami Open in March – is the the first player from the Philippines to reach a WTA Tour final.
The 20-year-old lost five games in a row on her way to conceding the second set, before regrouping to clinch the decider.
Eala, ranked 74th in the world, has been drawn against defending Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova in the first round at SW19.
But first, she will face teenager Maya Joint in Saturday’s final after the Australian beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 7-5 6-3.
Bbc.com
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