OSAKA: Fourth-seeded Angelique Kerber advanced to the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open on Friday after Madison Keys retired injured in the deciding set.

Kerber led 6-4, 4-6, 2-1 when the fifth-seeded Keys retired. Keys recorded 39 winners against 33 unforced errors while Kerber had 18 winners and 13 unforced errors.

Kerber next faces the winner of the match between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Misaki Doi. Pavlyuchenkova was leading 2-0 in the first set before rain stopped play for the day.

Persistent rain washed out the rest of the quarter-final matches, with home favourite Naomi Osaka’s meeting with unseeded Yulia Putintseva moved to Saturday in the revised schedule.

The semi-final matches have been scheduled for the evening session, the organisers confirmed.

At the Korea Open in Seoul, fourth-seeded Magda Linette of Poland cruised into the semi-finals with an emphatic 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kirsten Flipkens.

Linette next faces second-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova for the first time. The Russian beat Kristie Ahn of the United States 6-7 (0-7), 6-4, 6-4. Ahn held a 2-0 lead in the decider before losing four straight games and was unable to make a comeback.

In the other quarter-finals, Karolina Muchova beat Priscilla Hon 6-3, 6-3 to set up a match against eighth-seeded Yafan Wang, who beat Paula Badosa 6-1, 6-3.

At the Guangzhou International in China, Samantha Stosur rallied after a slow start to beat Viktorija Golubic 2-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 in the semi-finals and qualified for her first WTA singles final in 2½ years.

Stosur is chasing her first title since winning at Strasbourg in 2017. Her opponent will be third-seeded Sofia Kenin after the American defeated Anna Blinkova of Russia 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-1.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2019