Iga Swiatek records 50th Top 10 win of career with victory over Paolini in Bad Homburg

Iga Swiatek has defeated Jasmine Paolini in Bad Homburg, 6-1, 6-3, to move through to the final of the WTA 500 grass-court event.

And with that victory, she pulled off three big firsts.

Firstly, she’s now through to her first tour-level final on grass, her best result on the surface before this being a run to the semifinals at the same tournament two years ago.

Secondly, it’s her first career Top 10 win on grass—in fact, it was her first time even playing a Top 10 player on this surface.

Thirdly, and biggest of all, Swiatek’s victory over the No. 4-ranked Paolini was the 50th Top 10 win of her career. She’s the first player born in the 2000s, female or male, to reach that milestone.

MOST TOP 10 WINS, PLAYERS BORN IN THE 2000s:

• 50: Iga Swiatek [born in 2001]
• 44: Jannik Sinner [born in 2001]
• 42: Carlos Alcaraz [born in 2003]
• 30: Coco Gauff [born in 2004]
• 20: Felix Auger-Aliassime [born in 2000]
• 20: Holger Rune [born in 2003]

And it only took Swiatek 72 meetings against Top 10 players to rack up 50 wins—she’s now 50-22 against the elite, an excellent .694 winning percentage, and she’s 6-3 against them this year.

(Note: the WTA match notes for the Bad Homburg semifinals write that Swiatek had 48 career Top 10 wins going into today's match, not counting her victory over Paolini in the semifinals of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals at the end of last year.)

After Swiatek beat Paolini in straight sets in their first three career meetings, Paolini pushed her hard in their most recent meeting—in the semifinals of the Billie Jean King Cup Finals last year—though Swiatek ultimately won that one too, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

But their fifth meeting went much like the first three, as Swiatek rolled through the first set, then—after getting broken in the opening game of the second set—broke right back and started rolling again, eventually serving it out after 66 minutes on court.

Up next for the No. 8-ranked Swiatek will be an all-Top 10 clash with Jessica Pegula in the final, after the world No. 3 rallied from a set and a break down to defeat Linda Noskova, 6-7 (2), 7-5, 6-1.

Swiatek leads the head-to-head, 6-4, though Pegula has won three of their last five meetings. They've never played on grass.