World No 1 Iga Swiatek made the semifinals of a grass-court tournament for the first time by beating Anna Blinkova in Bad Homburg on Thursday.
Swiatek defeated the Russian ninth seed 6-3, 6-2 in the first meeting between the two players.
The four-time Grand Slam champion is yet to get past the fourth round of Wimbledon, which starts on Monday, although she was junior champion at the All England Club in 2018.
On Thursday, the Pole broke Blinkova once in the first set and twice in the second.
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Throughout the match she demonstrated a notable improvement to her serve compared to when she crashed out to Alize Cornet in the Wimbledon third round last year.
