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Swiatek gets 'goosebumps' after reaching first Wimbledon semifinal
Swiatek has won four titles on the clay at the French Open, as well as the US Open in 2022, but has struggled on the lawns of the All England Club
- PUBLISHED: Wed 9 Jul 2025, 8:26 PM
- By:
- AFP
Iga Swiatek said she had "goosebumps" after reaching the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in her illustrious career with a 6-2, 7-5 win against Russia's Liudmila Samsonova on Wednesday.
The Polish eighth seed will face former Olympic champion Belinda Bencic, who beat Russian teenager Mirra Andreeva 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (7/2), for a place in Saturday's final.
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Swiatek has won four titles on the clay at the French Open, as well as the US Open in 2022, but has struggled on the lawns of the All England Club.
Her previous best result at Wimbledon was a run to the quarterfinals in 2023.
Swiatek dominated the first set against 19th seed Samsonova on Court One but was made to battle in the second set before wrapping up victory in one hour and 49 minutes.
"It feels great. Even though I'm in the middle of the tournament I've already got goosebumps after this win. I'm super happy and super proud of myself and I'll keep going," she said.
"Honestly, I've really enjoyed playing this year and hopefully it's going to last as long as possible.
"For sure I feel like I really worked hard to progress here on this surface."
Swiatek broke twice in the opening set to take a firm grip on the match, benefiting from a flurry of unforced errors from her opponent and winning 100 percent of her points on first serve.
Two double faults from the Russian 19th seed handed Swiatek an early break in the second set and she snuffed out a clutch of break points in the following game to go 3-0 up.
The 24-year-old was pegged back as her level dipped and Samsonova pulled level at 4-4.
But Swiatek regrouped and broke again to seal the win, finishing off her opponent with a fierce forehand winner.
The former world number one has gone under the radar at this year's Wimbledon as most of the other top women's seeds have tumbled, though world number one Aryna Sabalenka is still standing.
After slipping down the rankings, she is now back in the world's top four having reaching the Bad Homburg final on grass last month.
Swiatek, a former Wimbledon junior champion, lost in the semifinals of both the Australian Open and the French Open this year.
Meanwhile, Bencic won two tiebreaks to beat Russian seventh seed Andreeva to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time.
The only mother left in the singles draw smashed her first of four match points to win the second tie-break of the contest and become her country's first women's semifinalist since Martina Hingis in 1998.
Swiatek now stands between her and a place in the final.
Andreeva, 18, fired four aces in the opening set to none for Bencic and there was next to nothing between the pair until the Russian netted a couple of forehands in the tie-break.
Bencic had two break points at 4-4 in the second set, Andreeva saving one and then hitting long to go 5-4 down and leaving the Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion to serve for a place in the last four.
Andreeva refused to follow the script, however, and broke straight back to 5-5 before going to 6-5 with 28-year-old Bencic then serving to take the match to another tie-break.
