Spain’s Garbine Muguruza on Thursday defeated Greece’s Maria Sakkari 6-3, 6-1 to advance to the semi-finals of the Qatar Open where she was to face fellow former world No. 1 and two-time major winner Victoria Azarenka.
Muguruza was a force to be reckoned with throughout, calmly applying pressure to her rival, who could not contend with her power and precision, with the Spaniard hitting four aces.
She quickly went ahead 4-0 in the first set and finished without dropping serve, although having to overcome break points in the final game before prevailing.
“I’m happy, I felt good on court,” former Wimbledon and Roland Garros champion Muguruza said after her victory. “So far I’m happy to be back, trying to get closer and closer [to the final].”
Azarenka, a two-time winner of the Australian Open in 2012 and 2013, reached the last four by seeing off Ukrainian top seed Elina Svitolina, 6-2, 6-4.
“Every match is hard, it’s always difficult,” Muguruza said as she looked ahead to her clash with Azarenka.
Belarusian Azarenka improved to 4-0 against Svitolina with an 85-minute win comfortably taking her to the 60th WTA Tour semi-final of her career.
Azarenka dug deep, overcoming back pain and medical attention to fire 25 winners.
In the other quarter-finals, two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova outfoxed Anett Kontaveit in three arduous sets, seeing off the Estonian 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.
The second set threatened to derail Kvitova’s earlier momentum, with the Czech facing several service breaks.
“It was a kind of a roller coaster, I would say. It’s tough to play Anett at any time,” Kvitova said. “I’m really glad that after losing the second set, which I didn’t play the best, probably, I started very well in the third, and you know [what] was important was the first break in the first game of the third set.”
Fourth seed Kvitova was due to face American qualifier Jessica Pegula in the other semi-final.
Pegula, who made the Australian Open quarter-finals last month, broke through to the highest profile semi-final of her career with an upset against second seed Karolina Pliskova, triumphing 6-3, 6-1.
After her victory she said that not dropping a single set coming out of qualifying was “definitely a confidence-builder.”
“[In] Australia and here I have been playing really aggressive, whereas last year at the US Open I definitely wasn’t playing as aggressive,” Pegula said. “I actually wasn’t really feeling that confident in my game, but I was figuring out ways to win. I think because I’m moving so much better that I was relying a lot on my movement and my defense.”
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