Swiss Timea Bacsinszky fought back from losing the first set with a bagel to take an impressive win with 0-6 6-3 7-5 against Sara Errani to reach the semifinals of the China Open Premier Mandatory in Beijing.
Errani, the first Italian player able to reach the quarter finals in each Premier Mandatory Tournament (Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid and Beijing), had to save three break points at the start of the first set but from then she won eight consecutive games to build up a 6-0 2-0 lead. Bacsinszky committed two many unforced errors and won just two points on her serve in the first set.
Errani went up 40-15 on her serve in the third game of the second set earning two points for 6-0 3-0. Bacsinszky won those two points breaking serve in the third game and won her fifth consecutive game to pull away to 5-2. Errani broke back for 3-5 but Bacsinskiy broke again to take the second set with 6-3.
Bacsinszky went up a break at the start of the third set to build up a 3-0 lead. In a roller-coaster match Errani broke back to love. In the 8th game Bacsinszy went up 0-30 but Errani held her serve to draw level to 4-4. Errani went up 0-30 in the 11th game but Bacsinsky held her serve to take the 6-5 lead.
After a double fault from Errani Bacsinszky clinched the final game to take the third set with 7-5 and reached the first Premier Mandatory semifinal of her career. Bacsinszky now leads 3-1 over Errani.
Bacsinszky has still an outside chance to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore. She is currently ranked 14th in the WTA Race to Singapore and needs two wins to keep her hopes alive. The Swiss player arrived in Beijing with five consecutive defeats but she found again her early-season form winning Camila Giorgi 1-6 6-4 6-3, Mariana Duque Marino 7-5 6-2 and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-4 4-6 7-5.
The Lausanne player scored her 40th win of the year She is one win away from breaking the top-10 for the first time in her career. With this win she keeps her hopes alive of qualifying the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Agnieszka Radwanska cruised past Angelique Kerber with 6-1 6-4 to reach the semifinals and is now two matches away from qualifying to the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Radwanska raced out to 6-1 in the first set in just 26 minutes. Kerber bounced back taking a 3-0 lead in the second set but Radwanska won six of the next seven games to clinch the second set with 6-4. Radwanska hit 11 winners to just 4 unforced errors.
Radwanska, who won in Tokyo two weeks ago, now leads 6-5 in her head-to-head matches against her German rival.
“It has been definitely an up and down season for me especially at the beginning of the season. I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. That was a bit frustrating. I diw much better during the grass court season. I had a couple of good results there and this helped me to be where I am right now. I still have a chance to go to Singapore and I am fighting for that ”, said Radwanska
