Google News Serbia Ladies Open: Paula Badosa looks to end SF drought; Ana Konjuh makes it to SF
by ABBEY JOHNSON
After rain wreaked havoc with the proceedings at the Serbia Ladies Open on Wednesday and Thursday, Friday’s action was quite hectic with four quarter-final matches and one second-round match having to be played. Lucky loser Viktoriya Tomova was the only player who had to pull double duty while the rest of the players in the draw having reached the quarter-final previously.
The Slovakian first posted 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 win over Leylah Fernandez in the second round in a minute shy of the two-hour mark. Later, she claimed another three-set win to reach the semi-final. This time over Hungarian Reka-Luca Jani, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5 in two hours and 32 minutes.
In the semi-final, Tomova will play fourth seed Paula Badosa. The Spaniard defeated seventh seed, Rebecca Peterson, in their quarter-final 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 21 minutes. This is Badosa’s third semi-final this year.
However, Badosa is still yet to reach a final of a WTA event and in Belgrade, she’s keen to turn around this statistic. “I've never been in a WTA final, so it's something that I'm going after. I think I'm doing a quite good clay season, keep continuing like this, having fun.
I have a tough match that's gonna come tomorrow. It's never easy, these kinds of matches, mentally they're tough, so I will try to play my best, and I hope I can be in the final,” Badosa said, in her post-match presser.
Serbia Ladies Open: Ana Konjuh takes huge strides
In the second half of the draw in Belgrade, Maria Camila Osorio Serrano will play Ana Konjuh in the semi-final. The Colombian defeated Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-2, 6-4 in an hour and 23 minutes in their quarter-final.
This is the third consecutive tournament in which the 19-year-old has made it to the penultimate round (or better). Prior to Belgrade, she reached the semi-final in Charleston (lost to Astra Sharma) while in her home-country event in Bogota, she won the title (defeated Tamara Zidansek).
Meanwhile, Konjuh, Osorio Serrano’s semi-final opponent at the Serbia Ladies Open upset fifth seed Nadia Podoroska in their last-eight clash. The Croatian posted a 6-4, 6-3 win in an hour and 35 minutes to reach her first semi-final in almost five years.