Pegula eases past Swiatek to win Bad Homburg title
BAD HOMBURG: Top seed Jessica Pegula contained Iga Swiatek's heavy topspin game on grass to earn a 6-4 7-5 victory on Saturday and lift the Bad Homburg Open title.
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The American held serve throughout and gave up just one breakpoint in the match, denying the Pole her first career title on grass, just two days before the start of Wimbledon.
Swiatek has not won a singles title since her 2024 French Open victory.
'I know you say you can't play on grass but you are very, very good on grass,' Pegula said, addressing Swiatek after the match. 'It was a special week.'
Pegula won a break at 3-3 in the first set to move 5-3 up.
The 31-year-old world No. 3, chasing her third title of 2025 and her first since April, landed the first set soon afterwards when the Pole sent a forehand long.
Swiatek put up a fight in the second set, edging close to a break but failing to carve out a break point.
It was Pegula who earned a breakpoint at 5-5 and she converted it with a sizzling crosscourt forehand.
Pegula held serve to seal her second career title on grass, following last year's win in Berlin.
For Swiatek, who shed tears while waiting for the trophy ceremony, it was still a successful week after reaching her first career final on the surface.
'You have an amazing game and you showed it throughout the tournament,' Swiatek told Pegula. 'Hopefully we will have many more finals together.'
'I feel it is going a good way and thank you for the opportunity to play here. This tournament shows there is hope for me on grass,' Swiatek said.
Separately, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is hoping an outburst after her French Open final defeat to Coco Gauff will prove a turning point in maintaining her emotional control in the biggest matches.
The three-time Grand Slam champion threw away a one-set lead to lose to the American in Paris earlier this month.
Afterwards, Sabalenka described her performance as the 'the worst final I've ever played.'
The Belarusian later apologized to Gauff for her comments and the pair put their differences aside by performing a dance together on the Wimbledon lawns for social media.
'I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it,' said Sabalenka at a pre-Wimbledon press conference on Saturday.
'I believe I get overemotional at the last stages of the tournaments because I have this desire of winning.
'Sometimes it (gets the better of) me and I can lose control over my emotions. So, I would love to improve that at the last stages of the tournament.
'But honestly I'm kind of glad what happened to me at Paris because I was able to learn a lot. I was able to sit back and being open to myself, not just to ignore some things. I think I realized a lot of things about myself in those last stages of the tournaments.'
Sabalenka's comments after the French Open were fiercely criticized in the US for taking the shine off Gauff's second Grand Slam title.
'Of course, she got my respect. She knows it,' added Sabalenka.
'I'm happy that she was, like, 'yeah, it's all good, don't worry'. As you saw the (dancing) video, I was talking, we are good, we are friends. I hope the US media can be easy on me right now.'
Sabalenka has never gone beyond the semifinals on the Wimbledon grass and begins her quest for glory against Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine, a player she admitted to having limited knowledge of.
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