Kucova took a break for 4-2, and so it seemed she might win the first set in one of her matches for the first time in the main draw of Rogers Cup. The Slovak got her first set point at 5-2, but Konta kept her cool and served to 5-3. On the contrary, Kucova failed to serve out for the set and Konta definitely had the momentum. However it seemed that Kucova found herself after the changeover, going to a 40-0 lead. Konta got it back to deuce, but after the dramatic ending Kucova was the winner of the first set. The second set brought only one break, when Kucova broke for 3-1. First match point came at 5-2, but the Slovak served the match out at 6-4 6-3.
Kucova made the match go her way by winning 8 of 11 close games, getting on with her 6 match win streak. The Live Ranking shows Kristina Kucova on her career high ranking of 78, moving up 43 spots in the rankings. The Slovak’s next opponent will be 10th seeded Madison Keys.
The last American left in the tournament Madison Keys won a crazy match over 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 7-6(3) 1-6 6-0 after 1 hour and 43 minutes. Keys broke for 4-2, but Pavlyuchenkova won 3 games in a row and was serving for the set at 5-4. Keys broke back to 5-5, and after 2 more breaks the first set headed into a tiebreak. The American dominated in the tiebreak and won it 7-3. Pavlyuchenkova won the second set easily 6-1, but Keys took the final set 6-0. This has continued Keys’ excellent record in 3 set matches in 2016, winning 77%.
The other semifinal will have two Top 5 players matching up for a spot in the final of Montreal. World No. 2 Angelique Kerber has confirmed her great form with a swooping 6-2 6-2 win over Daria Kasatkina. The Russian didn’t play her best match, winning only 35% of points after 1st serve, but Kerber also played a great match on return.
5th seed Simona Halep had a harder time beating another Russian, 9th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Romanian won 3-6 6-1 6-1 to reach the semifinal. Kuznetsova, much like Kasatkina, had a weak day on her 1st serve, winning only 48% of points after the 1st serve. Halep had an overall good match, getting 75% of first serves in, and winning 5 breaks out of 5 looks. The Romanian was coming to Montreal after a successful home tournament in Bucharest, which she won without facing a Top 50 player, and double bageling Anastasija Sevastova in the final. Reaching the semifinals here has prolonged her win streak to 8. Head-to-head between these two players is very hard to assess for this match. Halep is overall leading the H2H 3-2. Kerber has won both meetings with Halep in 2016, but neither of them was played on hard courts. The last match played on hard between the players was played at Rogers Cup 2015, when Halep won.
