Wimbledon 2025: Iga Swiatek books a spot in semi-finals; set to face Belinda Bencic

LONDON: Iga Swiatek is set to face Belinda Bencic in the women’s singles semifinals of Wimbledon 2025 after a straight-sets victory over Liudmila Samsonova on Wednesday.

Swiatek took one hour and 49 minutes to get past Samsonova 6-2, 7-5, and has reached the final four at all three grand slams this year. Samsonova matched Swiatek during the first four games of the first set, but Swiatek held off a break point in the first game and maintained her dominance throughout.

After fending off four break points, the eighth seed won two straight breaks to seize the lead and extended her winning streak to seven games as she raced 3-0 ahead at the start of the second set.

Jazda!

Iga Swiatek defeats Liudmila Samsonova 6-2, 7-5 to reach her first #Wimbledon semi-final pic.twitter.com/AWlIo5Jsbg

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 9, 2025

But as Samsonova leveled the score at 4-4 with consecutive breaks of her own, she pushed her way back into the game. The Russian could not hold on to force a tie-break, though, as Swiatek earned her fifth break of the quarter-final, converting on her second match point.

Switzerland’s Bencic reached a first Wimbledon semifinal with a 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/2) win against Russian seventh seed Mirra Andreeva. The Swisswoman is a former top-10 player, Olympic gold medallist (Paris 2020). She is the first Swiss woman semi-finalist at Wimbledon since Martina Hingis 27 years ago, having failed to advance past the last 16 in her prior eight appearances in southwest London.

In Men’s singles, Serbian tennis icon Novak Djokovic took one step closer to record-levelling eighth-time Wimbledon glory as he battled past Flavio Cobolli to advance to a record 14th semifinal at the tournament on Wednesday.

Djokovic found his answers when it was needed the most, producing a clutch comeback to secure a 6-7(6), 6-2, 7-5, 6-4 victory. The Serbian superstar’s next challenger is world number one Jannik Sinner, with the Italian ending Ben Shelton’s run in the competition with a 7-6(2), 6-4, 6-4 win. (ANI)