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Caroline Garcia’s campaign at the Cleveland Open came to a halt in the quarter-finals. Lin Zhu upset the highest seed 6-4, 6-1 in their match on Thursday after an hour and 25 minutes of play. The seeded player put in 70% of her first serves as compared to opponent’s 62%.
However, Zhu was effective in winning 64% of her first-serve points while Garcia managed to win only 54% of the first serves, she landed in. Garcia also struggled to win points off her second serves. Of the 20 points played on her second serve, she won just eight.
Zhu won 13 of the 22 points played on her second serve. Zhu lost her serve only once in the match and saved four break points in total. She also converted five of 10 break points that came her way on the French player’s serve.
For the match, Zhu had 14 more points than Garcia’s 56.
Cleveland Open: Lin Zhu makes the most of it all!
This is the fourth tournament this season that Zhu’s reached the semi-final of a WTA tournament. In the three previous tournaments, she reached the final of one event, the Thailand Open in Hua Hin and went on to win her maiden career trophy there.
She, however, lost in the semi-finals of the Monterrey Open and the Rothesay Classic in Birmingham. Meanwhile, here in Ohio, Zhu will now play Ekaterina Alexandrova. The fourth seed advanced to the semi-finals after defeating Zhu’s fellow Chinese, Xinyu Wang in their quarter-final match.
Alexandrova came from a set down to claim a 5-7, 6-0, 7-5 win after an hour and 56 minutes. On Thursday, Sloane Stephens also crashed out of the tournament in the quarter-final stage. The local favourite, seeded ninth, had to play to two matches though.
First, Stephens did make it to the quarters after completing a 6-3, 6-3 win over Mirra Andreeva in their second-round match-up. Their match that was initially scheduled for Wednesday had to be postponed to Thursday with Stephens leading in the scoreboard.
In the quarter-final, Stephens wasn’t able to do much against Sara Sorribes Tormo. The Spaniard notched a 6-1, 6-3 win to make her way into the semis. Sorribes Tormo’s opponent in the Cleveland Open semi-finals will be Tatjana Maria. The German needed an hour and 23 minutes to wrap up a 6-3, 6-2 win over Leylah Fernandez in their quarter-final clash.