No.2 seed Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain eased into the Chicago Fall Tennis Traditional semifinals on Friday, ending the breakthrough run of Japanese qualifier Mai Hontama, 6-3, 6-2.
It took Muguruza an hour and 40 minutes to cease Hontama’s successful streak, placing the previous World No.1 into her fourth semifinal of the season.
Stat nook: World No.200 Hontama had a stirring run to the quarterfinals this week within the first WTA main-draw look of her profession.
The 22-year-old Hontama had by no means performed a High 100 foe earlier than this occasion, however notched two High 60 wins en path to the elite eight, defeating Caroline Garcia within the first spherical and Shelby Rogers within the third spherical.
However World No.9 Muguruza had the solutions in opposition to the Japanese participant, breaking Hontama’s serve seven instances by amassing 75 p.c of the qualifier’s second-service factors.
Muguruza out-winnered Hontama by 13 to five, because the Spaniard continues to be within the hunt for her second title of the yr, having crushed Barbora Krejcikova for the Dubai crown through the winter. Muguruza can also be in rivalry for a coveted spot on the WTA Finals, at the moment sitting at No.8 within the Porsche Race.
Subsequent up: Muguruza will now tackle Olympic silver medalist Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic within the remaining 4. Of their lone earlier assembly, Muguruza dismantled Vondrousova 6-1, 6-0 within the Yarra Valley Traditional semifinals in Melbourne in January.
Vondrousova vanquishes Collins: Vondrousova outlasted No.10 seed Danielle Collins of the USA within the first quarterfinal of the day, 6-7(4), 6-0, 7-6(3), because the Czech moved into her fourth semifinal of the season.
The primary assembly between the 2 proved to be a topsy-turvy conflict, with World No.41 Vondrousova successful in a tense 2 hours and 32 minutes, after Twenty eighth-ranked Collins had served for the match at 6-5 within the third set.
Collins was the aggressor as a rule, however Vondrousova performed the cleaner match as an entire, with 26 winners to only 17 unforced errors. Collins’s 33 winners had been barely outpaced by 36 unforced errors. Vondrousova additionally gained 85 p.c of her first-service factors to assist her eke out the win.
An epic was portended by the primary recreation of the lean, the place Collins hit three double faults and needed to stave off six break factors, however held serve anyway.
All-court play by each propelled them right into a first-set tiebreak, the place Collins slammed an ace to take an preliminary 4-1 lead. A missed return by Vondrousova gave Collins three set factors at 6-3, and the American used blistering backhands to notch the second of that trio.
Nonetheless, that grueling set took its toll on Collins, whereas Vondrousova flourished within the second set. The Czech fired eight winners to only a single unforced error in that set as she raced to the bagel in 23 minutes, leveling the match.
The 2 went toe-to-toe within the remaining set, with Collins going up a break at each 4-3 and 6-5. However Vondrousova drew errors from the American in that recreation to interrupt shortly, queuing up a decisive tiebreak.
A Vondrousova winner off of a Collins dropshot gave the Czech an early mini-break for a 2-1 lead, and Vondrousova wouldn’t yield on her serve for the remainder of the breaker, taking it house for the victory.
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