Mexico City: World No. 1 Angelique Kerber defeated defending champion Heather Watson 6-4, 6-4 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the WTA tournament in Monterrey, Mexico.
Germany’s Kerber saved all eight break points she faced in a gritty display against Britain’s Watson, setting up a semi-final clash with fourth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez Navarro, who was a 6-1, 6-1 winner over French seventh seed Alize Cornet.
“I think it was a good match, especially at the end,” said Kerber, who made early breaks in each set stand up despite the pressure applied by Watson.
Three-time champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, the second seed, battled through three sets to defeat fifth-seeded Hungarian Timea Babos 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
Russia’s Pavlyuchenkova needed almost two hours to turn back a late charge from Babos.
She had appeared to be cruising when she took the opening set in less than 20 minutes.
But Babos grabbed a late break in the second set to force the third.
Babos earned the first break of the decisive set, and missed three chances to make it a double break before Pavlyuchenkova broke back to knot the set at 3-3, finally seizing her chance to close out the match on Babos’s serve.
“I started to feel the tiredness a little bit — it’s been a long and tough trip for me — but I just stayed calm anyhow,” said Pavlyuchenkova, who lifted the trophy in Monterrey in 2010, 2011 and 2013.
“I just stayed calm and played every point and fought til the end,” added Pavlyuchenkova, who next faces third seeded Caroline Garcia of France. Garcia defeated American Julia Boserup 6-3, 6-2.
In Miami, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni of Croatia bucked an upset trend that claimed Caroline Wozniacki on Friday, ending the hopes of hometown favourite Shelby Rogers at the WTA event in Charleston, South Carolina.
Croatia’s Lucic-Baroni, seeded 11th, defeated Rogers 6-7 (7/9), 6-1, 6-1 to book a semi-final berth.
She was the only seeded quarter-finalist to advance as fifth-seeded Wozniacki, eighth-seeded Anastasija Sevastova and 10th-seeded Irina Camelia Begu were all toppled by unseeded players.
Lucic-Baroni, 35, is the oldest player remaining in the tournament. When she played in Charleston for the first time in 2001, Rogers was a ball girl in the event.
“It was beautiful in a way,” Lucic-Baroni said. “It was difficult playing against the crowd, because Shelby is from here. It’s normal. It’s always tough, but I felt they were very respectful. They were cheering for their home girl, and it’s totally normal.
“The wind was what was really difficult today. It was incredibly hard, and the fact that I came out yesterday and today playing some great tennis and winning in these conditions, it’s incredible, really, really good effort.
“I would rather play with a live lion running around in normal conditions than play in today’s weather.”
Lucic-Baroni had a set point while serving at 5-4 in the first set, and she had another set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but Rodgers eventually captured the first set on her second opportunity.
After the split the first two games of the second set, the Croatian veteran seized command, winning 10 straight games.
“I thought we had a very good level,” Rogers said. “It was super entertaining. And bad luck, I wish I could have kept it up.”
Wozniacki, a former world number one who would have moved back into the top 10 in the rankings by reaching the semis, fell 6-2, 6-4 to 19-year-old Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia.
Wozniacki led the first set 2-1, before the 66th-ranked Ostapenko reeled off five straight games to pocket the set.
Wozniacki fought off a match point on her own serve at 3-5 of the second, but Ostapenko closed it out in the next game on her fourth opportunity.
In other quarter-final matches, 19-year-old Daria Kasatkina of Russia upset Romania’s Begu 6-4, 6-1, and Laura Siegmund of Germany beat Latvia’s Sevastova 6-2, 6-4.
