PREVIEW Bad Homburg Open 2025: Jessica Pegula, Iga Swiatek and Mirra Andreeva lead Wimbledon warm-up

The Bad Homburg Open is due to take place between 22-28 June 2025 with the yearly visit to Germany pre Wimbledon seeing a lot of top names trying to drag themselves into form ahead of the grass court major.

Chief among those is Iga Swiatek who will be involved for the first time since her damning defeat at Roland Garros which saw her Queen of Clay crown slip as Coco Gauff went on to be crowned champion.

But as the grass court season has proven so far, it is unpredictability. Tatjana Maria won at Queens, it is Marketa Vondrousova v Xinyu Wang at Berlin. So in reality, the favourites go out the window. Aryna Sabalenka and Coco Gauff showed that in Berlin losing to the two finalists.

Will that change though with a more high quality field in Bad Homburg?

Jessica Pegula couldn't retain the points she won for winning Berlin last year. She was defeated after a bye in the Last 16 by Liudmila Samsonova. This was her first grass court foray though as she didn't play Queen's and lost in the fourth round of the French Open fairly shockingly to Lois Boisson.

It was early exits to Anna Kalinskaya, Elise Mertens and Moyuka Uchijima prior to that after she had dominated most of the early clay court season and also performed superbly in the Sunshine Double.

While she did usurp Iga Swiatek, it wasn't to become World No.2 with Coco Gauff stealing her thunder winning the French Open and being more consistent. She has a big few months ahead after not defending points for some time. She will defend her final run at the US Open very soon and so needs some form on grass to stem that blow.

She faces off against likely Liudmila Samsonova again in Bad Homburg who dumped her out in an epic in Berlin last week so no luck in the world. Even if she gets through that, it could be one of Marta Kostyuk or Emma Navarro who could face Naomi Osaka so not exactly a simple assignment by any means.

Then onto the other top names with Mirra Andreeva in action this week. She lost to Magdalena Frech in Berlin on her return to the sport after losing to Lois Boisson like Pegula in Paris.

She could face Frech again ironically in the second round who faces Clara Tauson. Like Pegula no luck in the world. Then in that same section it could be her doubles partner in Diana Shnaider if she makes it past Donna Vekic and likely Linda Noskova.

Iga Swiatek is not generally a fan of grass compared to other surfaces so it should be intriguing how she gets on here and whether the clay blow she received recently will make her have a new perspective on the only surface she has yet to succeed on.

She faces the tricky German, Laura Siegemund or a qualifier then it likely will be Ekaterina Alexandrova or Belinda Bencic who face off then will take on the winner of Yulia Putintseva or Maria Sakkari.

The bottom section is the lane of Jasmine Paolini who faces either Queen's champion Tatjana Maria or Leylah Fernandez. But it is also a stacked section at least based off recent form.

This will test the Italian who has to defend final points in just a few weeks at the grass court major. Elina Svitolina proved on her return to the sport and in the intervening years that she can play on the surface and she opens against Libema Open champion Elise Mertens.

While below that is the finalist in Berlin, Xinyu Wang or Beatriz Haddad Maia. The latter has been superb on grass over the years and is in that similar mould to a Donna Vekic where often they are not thought of as grass court players but often produce their best form on the surface.

Defending champion speaking of Vekic is Diana Shnaider who saw off Vekic last year 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the final. It also marked the first time that the tournament was shifted towards a WTA 500.

Previously it had only appeared on the WTA 250 calendar. But it has also received the top billing this next week with Eastbourne which usually in years gone by was the main tournament before Wimbledon.

Now though with the advent of Queen's in particular, it has somewhat changed with Bad Homburg and Berlin especially in these middle to later weeks taking top billing. Similar to Rome and Madrid before Roland Garros, it is not the tournaments of the country of origin anymore.

But will it be a golden week for a big name or will a theme continue of no player really catching light yet and smaller names gaining the plaudits? Bad Homburg will confirm all of that.