ROME: Iga Swiatek gave another indication that she might be back to her brilliant best after destroying Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-2 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, 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 said. “I guess all the things that we practiced really clicked during last few matches.”

A potential decider with reigning Roland Garros champion Coco Gauff awaits for the winner of that last-four match-up in Saturday’s final.

The Polish fourth seed, a six-time Grand Slam champion, picked up exactly where she left off after her emphatic win over Naomi Osaka in the last round.

Against Pegula, she raced to a 5-0 lead before the American managed to avoid a bagel. Swiatek never loosened her grip on the match, conceding three games overall as the second set followed a similarly one-sided pattern. She finished with 15 winners compared to Pegula’s six.

The victory marks Swiatek’s first win over a top-10 opponent this year.

“I feel much better,” Swiatek said. “I have a lot of confidence in my shots. I used that from the beginning of the match and kept putting pressure, so I’m happy with how I played.”

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 Rafael Nadal after a difficult opening few months of the season.

Published in Dawn, May 14th, 2026