TENNIS WTA LINZ – In the quarterfinals of the WTA Linz, two Italians advanced to a derby semifinal, Anna-Lena Friedsam continued her run.
In the first match of the quarterfinals day, Karin Knapp needed two and a half hours to win the resistance of Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4 4-6 6-4.
It was a high quality match between two contrasting styles, with the Italian trying to impose her power from the baseline and the Bulgarian resisting and changing pace with her slices and sudden accelerations.
For the enjoyment of the crowd, the match finished with a high tension last game, when Pironkova served to complete her comeback in the deciding set. The Bulgarian trailed 5-2, but managed to keep up her solid and tricky game to have a chance to serve for 5-all.
Knapp tried her best to avoid a longer final set, but whenever she issued herself to a match point, her opponent hit some of her best winners to save them. On her sixth chance, however, the Italian finally broke down Pironkova’s forehand and sized her third semifinal of the season.
Her opponent will be compatriot Camila Giorgi, who stunned Marina Erakovic in two sets 6-3 7-5. The great anticipation skills and superb firepower of the Italian proved to be too much to handle, even for a specialist of indoors conditions like the new Zealander.
The Croatian born managed to find a break lead in the second set, after being given no chances in the first, but she was overtaken by the power of Giorgi’s winners when she served for the set.
The Italian, once she built the momentum back, never looked back again and with some more stunning winners closed the match.
In the bottom half, German qualifier, Friedsam, kept her Cinderella run going after turning her match against Stefanie Voegele around.
The Swiss player had an unbelievable first set off her serve, losing only seven points and hitting as many aces, three of which came consecutively to obtain the first and only-needed set point.
The German, however, changed her tactics and by pinpointing the biggest weakness in Voegele’s game, the forehand, she gave herself more chances and suddenly took full control on the match.
In her first career semifinal in a WTA-level tournament, Friedsam will face the highest ranked player left in the tournament: Karolina Pliskova.
The Czech player, who was the only seed left in the quarter-finals, imposed her power to the American qualifier Madison Brengle to win 6-4 6-4.
In the first set, Pliskova managed to serve at her very best, giving no break chances to the American, who was broken in the last game to give the set. In the second, however, the seventh seed had to come back twice from a break down, before finally taking the lead and, once again, breaking Brengle in the last game.
During the day, the WTA Linz gave an official good-bye ceremony for the retirement of Yvonne Meusburger, for long the highest ranked Austrian player, who decided to retire during the last summer.
Meusburger reached a career best ranked in March at world number 37 and won one WTA title in 2013 in front of the home crowd of Bad Gastein.
