Defending champion Petra Kvitova is the clear favourite to win the Nature Valley Classic in Birmingham.
She is in stunning form this season, plays her best tennis on grass and is the only seeded player in the semi-finals.
It is difficult to see who is going to beat the Czech, particularly as she has already beaten three potentially tricky opponents in straight sets.
The most recent of those wins came today against Julia Goerges. The World No.8 dispatched the German 6-1 6-4 in just 67 minutes.
However, Kvitova believes that scoreline was deceptive. “I think the score looks a little bit different to the game,” she said.
“At the beginning of the match, I didn’t get many first serves in. I also felt like Julia had trouble with her second serve.”
She continued, “But when I was playing with the early break in the second set I was a little bit more relaxed for sure.”
The Czech was pleased that she took her chances. She said, “That was the key to the match today. I played well on the important points.”
She continued, “Sometimes you don’t really need to play well when you take those chances. And sometimes when you’re not playing great and you take those chances it makes you even more confident.”
“But I don’t think I played badly today. I was pleased with the game and everything just worked well.”
Kvitova to face Buzarnescu in last four
Kvitova will take on Mihaela Buzarnescu in the semi-final. After years plagued by injuries, the Romanian has risen from 540 in the world at the start of 2017 to 30 now.
“She’s pretty confident right now,” the Czech said. “She’s in good form. Until I met her in Prague final, I didn’t really know much about her.”
She continued, “It was a really big fight. She’s a lefty. She probably likes the grass as well using a lefty serve. She’s playing with nothing to lose and seems to be really relaxed on and off the court, so that’s probably her biggest weapon now.”
