Poland's Iga Swiatek hits a return to USA's Jessica Pegula during the ATP Rome Open tennis tournament at Foro Italico in Rome on May 13, 2026. (Photo by Filippo MONTEFORTE / AFP)
Rome: Iga Swiatek gave another indication that she might be back to her brilliant best after destroying Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-2 at the Foro Italico on Wednesday and breezing into the Italian Open semi-finals.
A three-time champion in Rome, Swiatek took little more than an hour to take care of fifth seed Pegula on centre court, without facing a single break point.
It was a show of force on her preferred surface not seen since she last won the French Open two years ago, and gave Swiatek her first semi-final appearance of the season.
"I've been playing a bit differently, I would say. More similar to how I played couple years ago, more like a clay court player," Swiatek told reporters.
"I guess all the things that we practiced really clicked during last few matches."
Swiatek has set up a clash with either second seed Elena Rybakina or Elina Svitolina, also in action on centre court on Wednesday, in the last four.
A potential decider with reigning Roland Garros champion Coco Gauff awaits for the winner of that last-four match-up in Saturday's final.
Pole Swiatek hasn't won a clay-court tournament since claiming the most recent of her four Roland Garros titles, with personal problems a factor in her poor performances.
But since struggling through her second-round win against Caty McNally Swiatek has dropped just seven games in three matches.
Swiatek, a six-time Grand Slam champion, recently took on board Francisco Roig, the former coach of men's clay-court icon Rafael Nadal after a difficult opening few months of the season.
The 24-year-old got to the quarter-finals in Stuttgart in early April and forced to retire from the Madrid Open in the third round due to a viral infection.
Ruud in last four
But the kind of form showed on Wednesday suggests she could be favourite for a fourth Foro Italico title and back in the mix for the French Open crown.
In the men's tournament Casper Ruud reached his first Masters 1000 semi-final since winning in Madrid last year after beating Karen Khachanov 6-1, 1-6, 6-2 in a match interrupted by a long rain delay.
Norwegian Ruud was one game down in the second set when a downpour fell on Rome, forcing the match to be paused for over two hours, and when play resumed Khachanov quickly levelled the match.
But Ruud claimed his tour-leading 139th win on clay since the start of the 2020 season and will face one of Rafael Jodar, who was knocked out in the Madrid last eight by Jannik Sinner, or Luciano Darderi.
"A little bit of a, you know, down period in the second (set) when we came back after the rain," said Ruud on court.
"But very proud of the first and the third sets... the quality that I played in the first and third sets is probably some of the best I felt on court recently."
Italy's Darderi is playing the biggest quarter-final of his career after knocking out second seed Alexander Zverev on Tuesday.
