Garbiñe Muguruza was first into the Stanford semi-finals on Friday with a comprehensive 6-1 6-3 victory over Ana Konjuh. Continuing on from Wimbledon there’s an intensity to Muguruza, one that we have rarely seen at non-Slam events. The Spaniard was rock solid and gave very little away during the 62 minute contest. Konjuh produced a handful of super shots, but came nowhere close to rivaling Muguruza’s consistency. Muguruza was brilliant setting up the point behind her first serve, winning 27 of 33 points on the first serve.

CoCo Vandeweghe delivered another impressive display to beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, 6-2 6-3. Pavlyuchenkova chalked up one break point on the Vandeweghe serve but otherwise, barely had a look in on the American’s serve. Vandeweghe was in charge of the rallies and dictating play with Pavlyuchenkova mostly reactive and unable to play her game.

While I was sleeping…

Dismissing fears of the wrist (I read far too much into that!), Madison Keys reached her first semi-final of 2017 with a 6-4 6-3 win over Lesia Tsurenko, rallying from 2-4 down in the first set.

Key’s press conference is linked below from the Bank of the West Classic’s Facebook page. Madison had an issue with her forearm, not the wrist.

 

CiCi Bellis beat Petra Kvitova, 6-2 6-0 – that scoreline was a shocker to wake up to! I’ll try and catch a replay of the match later. While it sounds like Bellis played a great match, Kvitova’s stats are ones you don’t see every day. The Czech player didn’t hold serve once, winning just 42% of points behind the first serve and 25% of points behind the second set. I’m looking forward to seeing Petra again in Toronto.

Saturday’s semi-finals will be Garbiñe vs. Madison and CoCo vs. CiCi! The first semi-final starts at 2pm local time (10pm UK time) so will likely be catching up on reply on Sunday. Who you got?

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In Washington the number one seed, Simona Halep succumbed to the heat and retired early on in the third set of her quarter-final against Ekaterina Makarova. I thought the conditions were going to be more favourable today but clearly not!

Halep was a set and a break up although that was with a lot of help from Makarova in what was a scrappy opener. Conditions looked brutal once again and I noticed Halep had a white cap today and was trying to get out of the sun at every moment. Makarova has now reached the semi-finals in all four of her appearances at the Citi Open.

Julia Goerges continued her excellent recent form to reach her third semi-final in the last five tournaments. Goerges beat Monica Niculescu, 6-3 6-4. I watched the end of the match where Goerges was wasting a ton of opportunities. Niculescu’s consistency, particularly off the forehand slice, was not there and Goerges eventually seized her moment at the end with two fine points to close out the match.

While I was sleeping…

An emotional, Oceane Dodin edged Sabine Lisicki in a third set tiebreak victory, 5-7 6-4 7-6(7). By all accounts on social media, the third set is well worth a watch back. Dodin has been taken to three sets in all three of her matches. It’s great to see Lisicki back and she’s made a very encouraging comeback considering wins were hard to come by last year. Two quarter-finals in her first three tournaments back is an excellent start.

Andrea Petkovic couldn’t quite complete the comeback in a crazy first set against Bianca Andreescu, but rolled through the final two sets to win, 6-7(3) 6-1 6-2 to reach her first semi-final of the year! I’m thrilled for Andrea who has been through it all in her career and deserves some joy.

Here’s a good piece on Andrea where she talks about her struggles on the court over the past few years.

Sloane Stephens and Eugenie Bouchard are into the D.C. doubles final!

The semi-finals will see Makarova take on Dodin at not before 4pm local time and fellow compatriots, Julia Goerges and Andrea Petkovic play the late night match at not before 9pm. The scheduling is always a joke in Washington. Again, who you got?

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The qualifying draw for Toronto is out and it’s a cracker with the likes of Magdalena Rybarikova, Naomi Osaka and Ash Barty all in there.

The main draw is also out and I look forward to dissecting it tonight! Hopefully will have a preview up on Sunday.

Very sad news about Roberta 😢

And finally, in non-tennis news, i’m excited for the new Bake Off with the new trailer released on Thursday. It’s going to be different on Channel 4. I’m more than willing to give it a shot and for me, the bakers are the real stars of the show anyway. For the last two years, i’ve tried to bake something new from the show each week and i’m aiming to do the same again this year.

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