Home favorite Katie Boulter continued her run through the HSBC Championships with a pair of wins Friday in London — including a 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 defeat of No. 1 seed Elena Rybakina to reach the semifinals.
The British wild card followed a Tuesday upset of No. 8 seed Leylah Fernandez with a 6-1, 6-3 defeat of Romania’s Jaqueline Cristian in her first match of the day. She followed with her second career top-five win against Rybakina, who was also playing her second match of the day after a 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-0 defeat of Germany’s Tatjana Maria.
Boulter secured the only break of the third set at 4-4 against her Kazakhstan competitor, serving out the match from there. She saved 12 of 14 break points and will next face Croatian lucky loser Donna Vekic on Saturday for a spot in the championship. Vekic defeated a pair of Czech opponents on Friday in Marie Bouzkova and Karolina Pliskova.
Boulter’s win wasn’t the only notable upset of Friday’s action. No. 6 Iva Jovic beat No. 2 Amanda Anisimova 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in a battle of Americans to come away with her first career top-five victory. Emma Raducanu from the United Kingdom and Uzbekistan’s Kamilla Rakhimova will face off in the final quarterfinal Saturday for the right to face Jovic. Raducanu beat Romania’s Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-2, while Rakhimova bested Britain’s Harriet Dart 5-7, 6-1, 7-5.
Libema Open
Barbora Krejcikova, the only seeded competitor to reach the quarterfinals of what has been an upset-filled event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, advanced to the semis with a convincing 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Elena-Gabriela Ruse of Romania.
The eighth-seeded Czech won nearly as many points on Ruse’s serve (26 of 45) as she did her own (28 of 42), holding a dominant 6-1 edge in aces while facing just one break point. She next faces Poland’s Magda Linette, who swept Turkey’s Zeynep Sonmez 6-4, 6-2 to reach the semifinals.
Robin Montgomery is through to the other semifinal after a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Ukrainian Daria Snigur. She awaits the winner of Caty McNally and Australian Ajla Tomljanovic’s quarterfinal clash, which was suspended due to rain with Tomljanovic up a set and 4-1 in the second set.
Both won matches earlier in the day on Friday, with McNally ousting Argentina’s Solana Sierra 6-4, 6-3, while Tomljanovic rallied past Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-5 victory.
–Field Level Media
