Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei yesterday advanced to the Tianjin Open semi-finals in China, after Belgian Elise Mertens retired at 6-2, 4-0.
Mertens cited a right arm injury for stopping the match.
The fifth seed is next to face Caroline Garcia of France after her sixth-seeded opponent, Croatian Petra Martic, retired trailing 6-2, 1-0.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, top seed Karolina Pliskova overcame a slow start to put away Britain’s Katie Boulter 5-7, 6-0, 6-3, improving her chances of qualifying for the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Pliskova, currently eighth in the Race to Singapore standings, is battling for one of the three available spots in the season-ending tournament starting on Oct. 21.
World No. 101 Boulter, facing a top-10 player for the first time, took her Czech opponent by surprise with two breaks of serve to clinch the opening set.
Pliskova is known for her powerful serve, but it was her return game that came to the rescue as she converted nine break points to move past Boulter into the semi-finals.
“[In the second set], I started with a quick break, which always helps a little bit, and I improved my serve,” world No. 6 Pliskova said. “I played more aggressive, I thought, and she didn’t have time much to play her game, and that was the difference.”
Earlier in the day, fourth seed Aryna Sabalenka suffered a shock 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5) defeat to Swiss Timea Bacsinszky, which ended the Belarusian’s chances of participating in the WTA Finals.
Bacsinszky deployed the full range of her ground strokes to reach her first WTA semi-final since the French Open last year. The 29-year-old is to face Pliskova for a place in the final.
HONG KONG OPEN
AFP, HONG KONG
China’s Zhang Shuai looked in ominous form at the Hong Kong Open yesterday, as she swatted aside last year’s runner-up Daria Gavrilova in straight sets — and said she was growing in confidence with every victory.
The world No. 39 overwhelmed her Australian opponent with the sheer power and precision of her ground strokes and ran away with a comfortable 6-1, 6-3 victory after little more than 1 hour.
Zhang is to make her debut in the Hong Kong semis today, when she takes on Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska.
“The first and second rounds gave me a lot of confidence — that’s why today I played really well,” Zhang said. “I’m really happy so many fans have come to Hong Kong. I’ll try my best tomorrow.”
Gavrilova said she was tired after two three-set matches in the earlier rounds and said her knee was in pain during the pre-match warm-up, but that was not why she lost.
“I felt like she had her A-game today,” Gavrilova said. “I was dropping the ball too short and not finding the corners, I was getting myself into too much trouble by hitting the ball in the middle of the court, really.”
Zhang is to be favorite to win against 18-year-old Yastremska.
The 2016 Wimbledon girls’ singles finalist conquered her nerves as she fought back from an early setback to win only her second WTA quarter-final earlier yesterday.
The 18-year-old quickly went down 4-0 to outsider Kristina Kucova before recovering to win 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
Earlier this year, the big-serving teenager became the first player born this millennium to break into the WTA top 100 rankings.
In yesterday’s late match, former world No. 1 Garbine Muguruza booked a semi-final place after fighting off a late comeback by Thailand’s Luksika Kumkhum to win 6-2, 7-5.
SHANGHAI MASTERS
AP, SHANGHAI
Fourth seed Alexander Zverev yesterday secured a spot in next month’s ATP Finals with a 6-4, 6-4 quarter-final win over Kyle Edmund at the Shanghai Masters.
Zverev is the fifth player to qualify for the season-ending tournament in London, joining Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Juan Martin del Potro in the eight-player field.
Zverev is to play second seed Djokovic in the semi-finals. The Wimbledon and US Open champion defeated seventh seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa 7-6 (7/1), 6-3.
Zverev won his only encounter against Djokovic in last year’s Rome final.
“It was a different surface,” Djokovic said of their previous match. “I wasn’t, I feel like, playing as well as I’m playing today.
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