Spain’s Cristina Bucsa advanced to the Hong Kong Tennis Open semifinals on Friday when top-seeded Swiss Belinda Bencic withdrew before their match with a thigh injury.
Bucsa will take on No. 5 seed Maya Joint of Australia, who outlasted Japan’s Himeno Sakatsume 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.
No. 2 seed Leylah Fernandez and No. 3 Victoria Mboko both won in straight sets to set up an all-Canadian semifinal. Fernandez defeated No. 7 Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-4, 6-4 and Mboko was leading No. 6 Anna Kalinskaya 6-1, 3-1 when the Russian was forced to retire.
Jiangxi Open
Russia’s Anna Blinkova eliminated No. 3 seed Alycia Parks 7-5, 7-5 in just under two hours to reach the semifinals in Jiujiang, China.
Taking advantage of a whopping 14 double faults by Parks, Blinkova advanced to face Dominika Salkova of the Czech Republic. Salkova saved three of four break points in a 6-3, 6-4 win against Chinese hopeful Zhuoxuan Bai.
No. 2 Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland was the only seeded player to reach the final four, knocking out No. 5 Yulia Putintseva of Kazakhstan 7-5, 6-2. Golubic will meet Austria’s Lilli Tagger, a 6-3, 6-4 winner against Tamara Korpatsch of Germany.
Chennai Open
Seventh-seeded Australian Kimberly Birrell crushed Croatian No. 3 seed Donna Vekic 6-4, 6-0 to reach the semifinals in Chennai, India.
Birrell never faced a break point in the 71-minute match. Up next is Taiwan’s Joanna Garland, who converted seven of 11 break points in a 6-2, 7-6 (2) quarterfinal win against Australia’s Arina Rodionova.
No. 4 seed Janice Tjen of Indonesia and Thailand’s Lanlana Tararudee will square off in the other semifinal. Tien took down Slovakia’s Mia Pohankova 6-3, 6-1 and Tararudee breezed to a 6-0, 6-2 win against Russia’s Polina Iatcenko.
–Field Level Media
