When Jasmine Paolini plays in Bad Homburg: background with Iga Swiatek

In Bad Homburg, central Germany, Jasmine Paolini is set to play the semifinals of the Bad Homburg Open, a WTA 500 tournament on grass, against a very difficult opponent: the Polish former world No. 1, and currently No. 8, Iga Swiatek.

Jasmine, who is No. 4 in the WTA rankings, would stay ahead of her opponent if she won, while if she lost she would be overtaken. Last year the 29-year-old Tuscan from Bagni di Lucca on grass was a finalist at Wimbledon, beaten by Czech Barbora Krejcikova.

In the German tournament, after taking advantage of a bye in the first round, the Italian and the Pole both won two matches always in two sets, Paolini against Canadian Leylah Fernandez and Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia, Swiatek against another former No. 1, Belarusian Viktoria Azarenka, and against Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova.

The two tennis players will take the court at 1 p.m. and the match will be broadcast live on Sky Sport Arena and Supertennis and streamed on Sky Go and supertennis.tv. The previous matches have all been won by Swiatek, four out of four, but the last one, in last year’s Billie Jean King Cup semifinals, was by far the closest match, with Jasmine winning a set for the first time against Iga and ending up bowing out in the third.

Next up will be the second semifinal between U.S. Jessica Pegula, world number 3, and Czech Linda Noskova, number 30.