World No.1 Iga Swiatek and Yanina Wickmayer will return to the court on Sunday at the BNP Paribas Warsaw Open to finish their semifinal match, and the winner will be back on court later to face Germany's Laura Siegemund.
Swiatek, the home favorite, led Wickmayer 6-1, 5-2 in the second semifinal Saturday, but couldn't finish off victory before the match was called off due to darkness.
The top seed served for the match twice, at 5-2 and 5-4, and also had three match points on Wickmayer's serve in the ninth game. But the Belgian, a former World No.12, climbed out of the hole and got even, ensuring her first semifinal appearance in six years would push on another day.
CRAZY athleticism!!! 👟💨@iga_swiatek | #BNPParibasWarsawOpen pic.twitter.com/X02jOG9uyC
— wta (@WTA) July 29, 2023
Earlier in the day, Swiatek and Wickmayer set their semifinal by winning their quarterfinal matches, which had previously been rained out on Friday. Swiatek beat eighth-seeded Czech teenager Linda Noskova 6-1, 6-4, in a match between the only two seeds to make the last eight, while Wickmayer beat Heather Watson 6-4, 6-3.
Siegemund, meanwhile, took the long road into her first singles final in five years. In all, she needed 6 hours and 15 minutes on court combined in the quarterfinal and semifinal against Italy's Lucrezia Stefanini and her compatriot Tatjana Maria to reach the championship match for the first time since winning the 2017 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix on home soil.
Siegemund hit 59 winners to 30 unforced errors 2 hours and 56 minutes against her fellow German Maria, who struck 16 winners to 17 unforced errors.
"I have to say that the spectators, they carried me a little bit," Siegemund said after beating Maria. "Against Tadde, you have to win every point by yourself, she gives you nothing for free. I knew that. She's played like this all her life and it's very difficult because you keep making errors, and you need to believe in yourself.
"I think the people enjoyed that I really took the courage and kept coming to the net, even if I failed many times and played terrible errors. But I kept doing it, and I think the people really appreciated this kind of offensive tennis and that gave me the courage to keep going."
Highlights: Siegemund def. Stefanini | Siegemund def. Maria
REMARKABLE 🤯@laurasiegemund pulls double duty to reach her first WTA singles final since winning Stuttgart 2017!!! #BNPParibasWarsawOpen pic.twitter.com/4x7vasx38n
— wta (@WTA) July 29, 2023
Wickmayer is assured of playing twice on Sunday regardless of the result against Swiatek. She and Watson will play in the doubles final against Poles Weronika Falkowska and Katarzyna Piter.