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Beatriz Haddad Maia, Qinwen Zheng and Lin Zhu completed the semi-final line-up at the WTA Elite Trophy on Friday. Haddad Maia was the first to make it to the semis, after which Zhu took her place with Zheng clinching the last place.
Earlier, on Thursday, Daria Kasatkina was the initial semi-finalist. In her match against Caroline Garcia, Haddad Maia posted a 6-1, 7-6(4) win after an hour and 37 minutes of play. The Brazilian won 77% of her first-serve points to Garcia’s 67%.
The latter was unable to match up to her opponent’s level of play for almost the entirety of the first set. And although Garcia steadied herself to push the second set into the tie-break, she wasn’t able to deny her rival for long in the clash.
Haddad Maia had 12 fewer winners than the 25 Garcia hit. But she also had 22 fewer unforced errors than the 31 her opponent came up with during the proceedings. Going into the semi-finals, Haddad Maia, like Kasatkina, hasn’t lost either of her two round-robin matches.
The two will face each other for a place in the final.
WTA Elite Trophy: A Chinese player will vie for the trophy!
Meanwhile, Zhu got a chance to make the most of her presence in her home event after Veronika Kudermetova pipped Liudmila Samsonova in their round-robin clash in the Rose Group.
The match saw both players being unable to assert their dominance for long. Kudermetova led Samsonova by a set and a break. In the second set, after having secured a 3-0 lead over Samsonova, Kudermetova wasn’t able to win a single game for the rest of the set.
In the deciding set, Samsonova dropped her chance of wrapping up the match despite having a couple of match points after having serving for the match in the eighth game of the set. Kudermetova finished the match with a 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 after almost three hours of play.
Zhu will play a Chinese derby against Zheng for a chance to make it to the final of the WTA Elite Trophy. Zheng took exactly two hours to stun the unpredictable Jelena Ostapenko 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 in the last round-robin match of the Orchid Group.