Top-seeded Victoria Mboko converted 24 of 29 first-serve points (82.8%) to record a 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 7 seed Leylah Fernandez in an all-Canadian affair to reach the semifinals of the Internationaux de Strasbourg on Thursday in France.
Both players had serving issues as Mboko had five double faults and Fernandez committed eight. Mboko will face Jaqueline Cristian in the semis after the Romanian outlasted Australia’s Daria Kasatkina 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-2.
Emma Navarro earned her semifinal berth by rallying for a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory over China’s Shuai Zhang. Navarro will face fellow American Ann Li, who beat Czech eighth seed Marie Bouzkova 6-3, 7-5 to land her first career clay-court semifinal opportunity.
Grand Prix SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem
Sixth-seeded Petra Marcinko of Croatia converted 30 of 38 first-serve points (78.9%) while recording a 6-3, 6-4 victory over second-seeded Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain to reach the semifinals at Rabat, Morocco.
Marcinko trailed 3-1 in the second set before winning five of the next six games to take the match. She will next face Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann, who saved three match points to outlast Morocco homeland favorite Yasmine Kabbaj 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (6).
Seventh-seeded Panna Udvardy of Hungary will face Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine in the other semifinal. Udvardy beat Colombia’s Camila Osorio 7-5, 6-3, while Kalinina knocked off Hungarian No. 5 Anna Bondar 6-4, 7-5.
–Field Level Media
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