Iga Swiatek scored her first win of the grass-court season at the Bad Homburg Open on Tuesday by topping Victoria Azarenka in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
Competing for the first time in nearly three weeks — since her 26-match Roland Garros winning streak ended at the hands of Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals — the fourth seed rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the opening set to beat Azarenka for the fifth straight time.
Swiatek recognized the importance of overcoming a slow start against Azarenka, also a former No. 1, who came through qualifying and defeated German Laura Siegemund in the first round.
Swiatek finished the match with four breaks of Azarenka’s serve, and hit 25 winners and six aces.
“The first few games, I thought I was playing really well, and I had opportunities to break her, but I didn’t,” Swiatek said. “I kind of got maybe less intense, but I wanted to keep doing what I know I can do, and at the end, it was a great match.
“It was my first match on grass this year, actually having byes in these tournaments is not always a great thing because I want to play on grass as much as possible right now, but I’m really happy that I’m through to the next round.”
The win was also notable in that it was the 300th match-win of Swiatek’s career.
Swiatek will face the winner of Wednesday’s second-round match between No. 8 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and wild card Maria Sakkari in the quarterfinals.