IT was a speedy day of action at the Upper Austria Ladies Linz tournament, with three of the top four seeds all booking their spots in the 2020 WTA Tour semi-finals of the International event. Raging tournament favourite, Aryna Sabalenka is into the last four with the only other two players capable of causing an upset against her in Elise Mertens and Ekaterina Alexandrova also through, as was unseeded Czech Barbora Krejcikova who halted a potential all-Belarusian semi-final.

The quarter finals were all very one-sided, with straight set victories to the quartet of winners, and the longest match being Mertens’ 90-minute flat win over Russian Veronika Kudermetova. The fifth seed put up a fight in the first set, but eventually the second seed Belgian raced away with it to win 6-4 6-1. Mertens served the only three aces of the match, though both players serving efficiencies were poor at 47 and 44 per cent respectively. Kudermetova never looked liked winning with a below 50 per cent success rate off her first and second serves, whilst Mertens made the most of it with an 81 and 52 per cent success rate off hers. She also broke five times from 10 chances, while Kudermetova only managed the one from four.

Now Mertens takes on another Russian in fourth seed, Alexandrova. The Russian takes on Roland Garros semi-finalist and Argentinian Nadia Podoroska who was seeded sixth at the event. Coming into her favourite two months of the year where the Russian transforms into an almost-unbeatable force in the minor tournaments, Alexandrova won 6-2 6-1 in 58 minutes like she had somewhere to be. A first serve winning percentage of 81 to 34 was the story of the match, with Podoroska only winning 17 points on serve in total, whilst Alexandrova won 25 points off her first serve alone. The fourth seed also saved both break point opportunities and broke the 48th ranked Argentinian four times to make her way into the semi-finals.

“The start of the year was pretty good for me, and it feels great to be back. We’re finally back to playing indoors, too, because before that it felt like I was on clay every week, which isn’t my best surface,” Alexandrova said post-match.

“I was kind of frustrated during the pause, not knowing how long we would be off the tour. When we came back, I’d somewhat lost my feeling, my rhythm that I had at the start of the season. It took some time to find it again, but I think I’ve found it!”

The 2018 Linz finalist will be hoping to go one better in the 2020 tournament. She will need to defeat Mertens and then one of Sabalenka and Krejcikova after the pair also made their way through to the final four. Krejicikova made light work of Aliaksandra Sasnovich – who took out third seed Dayana Yastremska in the first round – 6-3 6-1.

Krejcikova is the number one ranked doubles players, but 74th overall in the singles format. She took care of the 92nd ranked Sasnovich to shut the door on a potential all-Belarusian final. The match lasted 67 minutes with Krejcikova serving six aces for one double fault and Sasnovich was almost the reverse with one and five respectively, and the Czech took control off the Belarusian’s second serve by winning 17 of 21 points to book her place in the penultimate stage of the tournament.

“I’m really happy,” Krejcikova said post-match. “This means a lot to me that I’m even able to be here and able to play. It’s obviously very difficult with everything happening in the world right now. I’m just really fortunate to be able to compete, have fun, and enjoy tennis.”

In the last quarter final, top seed Sabalenka flew the flag for her nation by winning against French qualifier Oceane Dodin. Unfortunately Dodin had to pull out of the tournament midway through the second set, but the world number 11 was in control, winning the first set and being level in the second, 6-3 3-3 before Dodin withdrew.

Sabalenka produced eight aces and was simply too powerful for the Frenchwoman, winning 34 of 51 points off her serve which had an 80 per cent efficiency, whilst setting up 10 break point opportunities. She only took two, which was one more than her opponent’s success off her only chance, but it was enough to set herself up in the first set for victory and make her way through to the final four.

Picture: Getty Images/Alexander Scheuber