Bad Homburg | It’s an unexpected Bronzetti versus Siniakova final

Top seed Iga Swiatek pulled out of the WTA 250 Bad Homburg Open semi-finals with a gastroenteritis illness, sending her opponent Lucia Bronzetti into Saturday’s final without striking a ball, while Katerina Siniakova won two matches on Friday to advance into the trophy contest.

“I’m so sorry but I have to pull out of my match today,” Swiatek said in a statement on social media. “I had a restless night because of some fever and possible food poisoning. I’m not able to perform today and I need to take care of myself. I hope I’ll be fine soon. Your support in Bad Homburg was amazing, thank you.”

Having captured her 4th Grand Slam title at Roland Garros last month, the World No 1 will carry a 10-match winning streak into Wimbledon next week, where she opens up against China’s Zhu Lin.

Meanwhile, Bronzetti, ranked 65, made it into her second final of 2023, and the first of her career on grass.

The Italian won her first Hologic WTA Tour trophy in Rabat last month, in the week preceding Roland Garros.

Bronzetti’s opponent in the championship match will be Siniakova, the World No 52 from the Czech Republic, in what will be their first career meeting.

Siniakova, who is also the current WTA Doubles World No 1, picked up two wins on Friday to reach her 8th career singles final, and is seeking her 4th career singles title.

To start the day, Siniakova completed a rain-interrupted 7-5 4-6 6-2 upset of No 2 seed Liudmila Samsonova from Russia, which had been held over from Thursday at a set all because of darkness.

The Czech then eased past Emma Navarro, 6-2 6-2, in an evening semi-final, firing 26 winners to just 12 unforced errors against the 60th-ranked American.

She faced just a single break point, in the very last game of the match, and the Czech steered out of that predicament to prevail in 66 minutes.

Siniakova has appeared at all 3 editions of the Bad Homburg Open, and is into the final for the second time.

She finished runner-up to Angelique Kerber at the inaugural edition in 2021.