There was a foul-mouthed outburst from Jasmine Paolini after the Italian was left seething over the behaviour of Iga Swiatek at the Bad Homburg Open. The two rivals met in the semi-finals in Germany, with the Pole winning 6-1 6-3.
Swiatek will now play Jessica Pegula in the final tomorrow. It will serve as her final match before Wimbledon, where the five-time Grand Slam champion has never been beyond the quarter-final stage. However, any clash with Paolini at SW19 could be feisty if today's meeting was anything to go by.
The Italian appeared to get fed up with her opponent frequently moving about on the baseline when she was due to receive serve. Paoli was made to wait to serve on numerous occasions, and eventually flipped.
"Every f***ing time when she's receiving (serve)," ranted the second seed. "Every time she moves, God Christ, every f***ing time! Stay calm Jas..."
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The umpire did appear to agree with the 29-year-old. After listening to her complaint, he then warned Swiatek and told the Polish star to be quicker between points.
"Can you try to ready Iga, please?" he said. Swiatek replied by claiming "I was" before offering a half-hearted apology to the official and returning to her position.
The order didn't affect the flow of the match, though. Paolini's apparent head loss came when she faced three break points at 2-3 down in the second set, and Swiatek duly converted in what proved the decisive moment.
Paolini will be seeded fourth at Wimbledon next week, four places above Swiatek. She reached the final at the All England Tennis Club last year, losing to Czech player Barbora Krejcikova.
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