Canada’s Bianca Andreescu reached her first semifinal of the season by clinching a two-game win over Ukraine’s Marta Kostyuk 6-0, 7-6(3) at the Open Thailand Tennis on Friday.
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The Ontarian has absolutely nothing left for her opponent, who is ranked 60th in the WTA in the first set. Imperial in return, the Hua Hin No. 1 won 13 points from 18 while Kostyuk served and broke three times in the process.
However, the 20-year-old continued to hope for a return to the field by beating Andreescu. Kostyuk forced the tie-break after being 5-2 down. She then scored the first two points of the duel before seeing the Canadian return to attack.
In the semifinals, Lesia Tsurenko (136th) is another Ukrainian waiting for the 42nd racket in the world on Saturday. The veteran caused a small surprise in the preliminary round by defeating the German Tatjana Maria (63rd) in two identical sets 6:1.
Pospisil always perfect
At the Challenger in Koblenz, Vasek Pospisil defeated local hero Louis Wessels 6:4, 6:2.
The British-Colombian has yet to lose a set in this tournament, being third seed. The 32-year veteran had some great moments on serve, winning 85% of rallies on his first serve while also hitting 10 aces.
Both men broke early in a row in the first set. However, Pospisil maintained the upper hand in the ninth game by taking serve from Wessels. In the second set, the Canadian broke his opponent twice.
In the semifinals, Pospisil meets the Czech Zdenek Kolar, who narrowly defeated the Frenchman Alexandre Muller 7:6 (5), 4:6 and 7:6 (3). The 254th player in the world had beaten event favorite China’s Zhang Zhizhen in the second round.
A heartbreaking defeat for Diallo
At the Cleveland Challenger, Quebecer Gabriel Diallo was eliminated in the quarterfinals after a nearly three-hour battle against Ecuadorian Emilio Gomez.
The 21-year-old from Montreal scared the tournament’s first seed, who is ranked 106th in the world. However, Gomez prevailed in three sets 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5.
Diallo suffered a broken service in the worst moment of the duel before losing in the third set when the score was 5-5. He then missed two opportunities to steal his opponent’s serve to force a tie-break, finally failing on Gomez’s third match point.
Diallo had previously disposed of Americans Alafia Ayeni and Mitchell Krueger in Ohio.