Top seeds Pegula and Paolini take different paths to Bad Homburg quarters
The top two seeds at the Bad Homburg Open advanced to the quarterfinals on Tuesday -- each in very different fashion.
No. 2 seed Jasmine Paolini saved multiple set points and squandered several match points before edging past Leylah Fernandez 7-6(8), 7-6(6) in 2 hours and 32 minutes -- tied for the second-longest two-set match of the season. In sharp contrast, No. 1 Jessica Pegula needed just 66 minutes to dispatch qualifier Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 6-2 with clinical efficiency.
Paolini’s win was a showcase of clutch play and all-court grit. The tone was set in a seven-deuce opening game that Fernandez finally won, and from there, momentum swung repeatedly. Paolini, sharp at net, built a 4-2 lead, but Fernandez answered with three straight games. At 6-5, the Canadian earned her first set point, only for Paolini to erase it with the shot of the match with a running lob at the end of a punishing rally.
Fernandez had two more chances in the tiebreak, but Paolini held firm, finally converting her second set point with a surprise short smash at the end of another absorbing all-court rally.
Paolini rode her momentum to a 5-2 lead in the second set, but Fernandez had upped her baseline aggression, particularly off her forehand wing. This began to pay off as she started to mount a remarkable comeback. Down 5-2, she staved off a first match point with an ace, then clawed her way back to level at 5-5. Fernandez escaped triple match point down 6-5 as Paolini's backhand let the Rome champion down, then was poised to force a third set as she held double set point in the tiebreak.
But Fernandez was unable to convert either, and a relieved Paolini escaped with the last four points of the match in a row. She will next face either No. 7 seed Elina Svitolina or Beatriz Haddad Maia.
Pegula and Siniakova have become frequent foes over the years, and their best battles have come on grass. Siniakova was a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victor in the 2021 Bad Homburg second round, the year she made her first of two finals here; last year, Pegula defeated the Czech 7-6(2), 3-6, 6-3 in the Berlin quarterfinals en route to her first grass-court title.
There was no such barnburner in their third encounter on the German lawns. Pegula was near-impenetrable on serve, dropping just four points behind her first delivery and facing just two break points all day. She advances to face either No. 5 seed Emma Navarro or wild card Naomi Osaka.
