The British No 1, Katie Boulter, eased into the semi-finals of the WTA Pan Pacific Open by comfortably dispatching Bianca Andreescu in Tokyo.
The 28-year-old registered a third consecutive straight-sets win at the tournament, progressing past the 2019 US Open champion by a 6-2, 6-1 scoreline in just over an hour. Boulter, the tournament’s ninth seed, will take on Sofia Kenin for a place in the final after the American defeated Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-4.
Boulter is currently ranked 33rd in the world after poor results on the WTA Tour’s Asian swing, losing to Coco Gauff at the China Open, to qualifier Lesia Tsurenko in Wuhan and then to Beatriz Haddad Maia in the last 16 of the Ningbo Open. She dominated Andreescu, though, after breaking in the first game of the match.
After a battle to hold serve in the next game, Boulter broke again to love in the fifth game and closed out the first set 6-2. Andreescu faltered again to surrender her serve at the start of the second set, with Boulter again double-breaking to lead 4-0. The Canadian was broken for a fifth and final time while serving to stay in the match at 5-1 down, with a double fault on match point handing Boulter a comprehensive victory.
“Me and my team keep pushing, we’ve been working really hard during the Asian swing and it’s starting to pay off,” Boulter told Sky Sports. “I’ve got nothing to lose, I’m out here with a smile on my face. I’m just proud to keep pushing to the end of the season, which I haven’t been able to do before because of my body.”
The tournament’s top seed, Zheng Qinwen, came through an up-and-down contest against Leylah Fernandez to reach the last four. The world No 7 won the first set 6-0 but Fernandez hit back in style to win the second set 6-1. Zheng regrouped to take the third set 6-3 and book a semi-final against Diana Shnaider.
Jack Draper reached the semi-finals of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna by beating Tomas Machac 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. The British men’s No 1, benefitting from a month’s break before the tournament, produced a dominant final-set performance to set up a last-four clash with Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti who beat top seed Alexander Zverev 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4.
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Draper, who is up to No 18 in the world rankings after the best year of his career, responded to losing the second set by breaking his Czech opponent twice in the decider. The 22-year-old Briton opened up a 4-0 lead before wrapping up his win in two hours and seven minutes, serving it out with an ace.
Returning from a month’s break after retiring hurt against Ugo Humbert in Tokyo, Draper had beaten Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Italy’s Luciano Darderi in the previous rounds in Austria without dropping a set.
Source: theguardian.com
