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Tennis - Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone is through to the semi-finals of the WTA Challenger in Limgoes as her opponent, the sixth seeded Margarita Gasparyan retired after losing the first set in a tie-breaker. Schiavone is hoping a deep run in this event will lift her ranking from her current position at No.
121 so that she can gain a direct entry into the Australian Open main draw - which will make her tie the record for most consecutive Grand Slam appearances by a woman along side Ai Sugiyama. Third seeded Caroline Garcia is also through to the semi-finals with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 over Donna Vekic; American Louisa Chirico and Czech Katerina Siniakova are also through to the semi-finals.
At the Hua Hin Challenger in Thailand, third seeded Nao Hibino and Naomi Osaka, both from Japan, are through to the last four. WTA Challenger Limgoes - Quarter Finals - [3] [WC] Caroline Garcia (FRA) d Donna Vekic (CRO) | 3 - 6 | 6 - 1 | 6 - 1
Louisa Chirico (USA) d [Q] Kateryna Kozlova (UKR) | 7 - 5 | 6 - 2
Katerina Siniakova (CZE) d [8] Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) | 7 - 5 | 2 - 6 | 6 - 3
Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d [6] Margarita Gasparyan (RUS) | 7 - 6 (5) | 0 - 0 Ret.
WTA Challenger Hua Hin - Quarter Finals - [3] Nao Hibino (JPN) d Luksika Kumkhum (THA) | 6 - 4 | 6 - 3
[4] Yaroslava Shvedova (KAZ) d Ying-Ying Duan (CHN) | 6 - 2 | 6 - 4
Naomi Osaka (JPN) d Fangzhou Liu (CHN) | 6 - 7 (4) | 6 - 1 | 6 - 3
Qiang Wang (CHN) d Su-Wei Hsieh (TPE) | 6 - 3 | 6 - 2 Also Read: Caroline Garcia to team up with Kristina Mladenovic for WTA Doubles Next Season