Germany’s Julia Goerges continued her strong season on Friday by defeating defending champion Daria Kasatkina to reach the semi-finals of the Volvo Car Open.
Goerges, the fifth seed who is ranked No. 13 in the world, overpowered third-seeded Kasatkina of Russia 6-4, 6-3 with nine aces — she won 84 percent of her points on her first serve — to advance to the final four at the WTA’s opening clay-court tournament.
Goerges, who won earlier this year at the WTA’s New Zealand event, is to face No. 8 seed Anastasija Sevastova of Latvia, who ended the surprise run of Kristyna Pliskova with a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
American Madison Keys, last year’s US Open runner-up, also advanced, prevailing in an all-US match with Bernarda Pera 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5.
She is to take on Dutch 12th seed Kim Bertens, who defeated 14th seed Alize Cornet of France 6-2, 7-5.
Goerges said getting her serve going early was crucial to beating Kasatkina.
“I served pretty big today, which was also [a] good key, of course,” Goerges said. “If you have good service games, you can put more pressure on the return games, and I think that was a good combination.”
Kasatkina, 20, had won her past eight matches in Charleston and got emotional when that run ended in her first defense of a WTA crown.
“I was not able to hold my tears after the match,” Kasatkina said. “It’s tough, but I’m happy that I have this experience now, and I went through this and I’m pretty sure next time is going to be much easier.”
Little came easy for Keys in the final two sets against Pera, the 23-year-old ranked No. 101 in the world who won three matches to make the quarter-finals.
Keys had match point in the second set, then was down a break to Pera in the third.
Keys said her coach, Lindsay Davenport told her: “’I don’t care what happens, just show me that you want it.’”
“And that was really all that I had to focus on, and I think that brought my level up,” Keys added.
Sevastova, ranked 16th, outlasted Pliskova in the opening set before winning the second one going away.
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