FORMER Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin is steadily building her way back up the world rankings, and is now through to the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo. The American talent took out third seed Daria Kasatkina in the quarter finals, winning 6-3 6-4 in an hour and 18 minutes on Center Court.

The now-ranked 155th in the world – also born in Russia – has not had a 2024 season to remember, winning just 10 of 34 matches coming into the tournament compared to Kasatkina’s 39-21 win-loss record. However despite the third seeded and ninth-ranked Russian on track to try and snatch her third WTA Tour title of the year, Kenin put a stop to that with some sublime play.

Kenin won 68 per cent of her first serve points and broke six times from 10 chances, and though she was broken each of the three times she was faced with one, it was still enough to win the match and oust the talented Top 10 player. It marked her second Top 10 win of 2024 and snapped a three-game losing streak in Asia. Kenin was also 3-8 since starting Wimbledon, coming into Tokyo.

The American wildcard will now face ninth seed Katie Boulter in the semi-finals after the Brit smashed another wildcard and Grand Slam winner in Canadian Bianca Andreescu. Boulter only dropped three games en route to a 6-2 6-1 quarter finals victory as prepares to return to the Top 30.

In the other two matches, the inconsistency of top seed Qinwen Zheng and US Open runner-up Leylah Fernandez was in show in their semi-final with the Grand Slam finalists playing out a 6-0 1-6 6-3 result that went the way of the former. The Chinese chance will now face Russian sixth seed Diana Shnaider in the semis after her opponent, Japanese qualifier Sayaka Ishii withdrew from the quarter final.

AROUND THE TOUR

In the WTA 250 event in Guangzhou, the semi-finalists were also decided with top seed Katerina Siniakova raging favourite, and the sole seed remaining in the draw. She took out American Bernarda Pera 6-4 7-5 to reach the last four, and will now take on Serbian Olga Danilovic for a spot in the final. Danilovic ended the run of Thai qualifier Mananchaya Sawangkaew 6-4 6-4.

In the other two quarter finals, Italian Lucia Bronzetti looks the biggest threat to Siniakova’s crown, storming past local chance Xiyu Wang 6-4 6-1, with the world number 84 now to take on American qualifier Caroline Dolehide in the semis. Dolehide stormed to victory when challenged in the second set to post and impressive 6-4 4-6 6-0 victory over seventh seeded Spaniard Jessica Bouzas Maneiro in an hour and 50 minutes.