BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open and Kremlin Cup; Highlights from Friday
The eight seed Julia Goerges won her quarter final match of the 2010 BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open Women’s single competition after beating her Serbian opponent, Ana Ivanovic, in two sets on Friday. The final match score was 6-3, 6-1. Ana was seeded number
four to win the title in Luxembourg.
Julia needed just an hour to get past her Serbian foe and make her way into the semi final round on Friday.
"I tried to make it tough on her and didn't make any stupid mistakes. She made too many mistakes, however she is still a great player and it is a good win for me,” reflected Julia after the match.
She is having her career best season on the WTA tour, highlighted by a title victory in Bad Gastein, a semi-final run in Palermo and at the very least, a final four show down here.
As for Ana, despite of the disappointing loss, the Serbian can take solace considering the fact that she played some great tennis over the last few weeks, having triumphed in ten of her past twelve clashes, including a crown in Linz as well.
The Serbian while commenting on her loss after the match said, "She played really well. I really felt under pressure the whole match and she was hardly making any errors. She did not let up for one minute. I expected a tough clash however she came out playing
exceptionally well today and she served big.”
In the semi-final round, Julia will meet Angelique Kerber, her compatriot fellow from Germany who thrashed out Polona Hercog in two sets in her third round match in four lifetime clashes versus the Slovenian. The final match score was 6-4, 6-2. Kerber triumphed
in her only other final four battle of her career earlier in 2010 in Bogota before losing in the finals by Mariana Duque Marino.
In other close match on Friday, Anne Keothavong got the better of Iveta Benesova in three sets, despite of losing three points in the opening set. The score line was 6-7, (3) 6-2, 6-4.
Next up for Anne is Roberta Vinci, who outlasted Kirsten Flipkens in straight sets and is now into the semi-final round on the second occasion in a week, having lost to Ivanovic earlier in Linz.
In other action in Moscow, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez did well to brush aside Dominika Cibulkova and thus confirmed her semi-final berth at the $1,000,000 Kremlin Cup Women’s singles competition on Friday. The final match score was 6-2, 6-3. Maria who broke
serve thrice in both sets closed out the match in one hour and twenty four minutes in Moscow.
Martinez Sanchez captured her biggest crown of the career in Rome this season and thus improved her ranking into the top twenty on the very first occasion in her career.
Next up for her is the second seed Victoria Azarenka, who made her way into the semi final after hammering down Alisa Kleybanova in two sets. The final match score was 6-1, 6-3. Maria leads the pair’s head to head encounter at 2-0. She won both of these
matches this year, although one came as a result of retirement, as Victoria pulled of the match due to injury.
Tags: