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Jasmine Paolini won the all-Italian quarter-final match-up against Lucia Bronzetti at the Jasmin Open on Friday. The top-seeded entrant in the main draw came through in straight sets 7-5, 7-6(3) in an hour and 54 minutes. Paolini won 66% of her first-serve points to Bronzetti’s 52%.
The latter won slightly more points off her second serve – 52% to Paolini’s 45%. Both players converted five break points on their opponent’s serve. Across both the first and second sets, in which both players traded breaks, in the second set, Paolini wasn’t able to penetrate through her compatriot’s serve in regulation time.
In the tie-break though, it wasn’t much of a problem for her to get through Bronzetti’s game. This is the third time this year Paolini’s reached the semi-final of a WTA tournament. Last week, she reached the semi-finals of the Zhengzhou Open (l.
to Qinwen Zheng). Earlier in the year, she made it to the semi-final before going all the way to the final at the Palermo Ladies Open, in July. She went on to lose that final to Zheng. Paolini will play Lesia Tsurenko, next. This will be the first time the two will be playing against each other.
Monastir Open: Elise Mertens still in sight of trophy retention
In her quarter-final against Nuria Parrizas Diaz, the fourth seed from Ukraine posted a 6-3, 6-2 win after an hour and 16 minutes of play. Tsurenko won 51% of her first-serve points and 62% points on return on the Spaniard’s first serve.
She also won 15 of 18 points played on return on Parrizas Diaz’s second serve. Tsurenko saved seven of the 11 break points she faced while converting eight of 12 break points she had on her opponent’s serve. Meanwhile, defending titlist Elise Mertens also made her way back into the semi-finals in Monastir with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Mai Hontama.
Mertens needed an hour and 24 minutes to wrap up the match against the Japanese. Mertens will need to win against Clara Burel to reach the final of the Jasmin Open for the second year on the trot. The eighth-seeded Frenchwoman beat Lucrezia Stefanini 6-3, 6-1 in merely 61 minutes in their quarter-final encounter.