Belgian qualifier Ysaline Bonaventure’s dream race at the ASB Classic continues.
Photo: PHOTOSPORT
Bonaventure advanced to the semifinals with an impressive 6-4 6-2 win over in-form Canadian third seed Leylah Fernandez on Friday.
The 28-year-old’s quarter-final win was made all the more impressive by the fact that rising young star Fernandez had lost just three games in her first and second round victories.
Bonaventure, ranked 95th in the world, also eliminated another Canadian on Thursday, the eighth seed, Rebecca Marino.
Earlier, top seed Coco Gauff was the first player to book her place in the final four.
Playing indoors again as the Auckland rain continues, the world No. 7 cruised to a 6-3 6-2 quarter-final win over China’s Lin Zhu on Friday.
The young American, who was making her debut at the New Zealand event, had yet to drop a set in three matches.
Gauff was scheduled to face a semi-final against seventh seed Danka Kovinich.
The Montenegro player secured a 6-3 6-2 victory over Slovak Viktoria Kuzmova in the second quarter-final.
In the last of the quarter-finals, young Spaniard Rebeka Masarova beat Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic 7-6 7-6 in a fight lasting more than two hours.
The match was almost able to start away on center court, only for the rain to return just before the first point was played.
After a while, and as the rain intensified, the players moved inside again.
Masarova’s win means her semi-final against Bonaventure will be a two-way battle for a place in the title-clinching match.
– RNZ
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