WHILST the majority of the quarter finals results at Lyon saw the seeds progress through to the semis, German Anna-Lena Friedsam caused an upset to be the sole remaining unseeded player in the last four.

Friedsam downed eighth seed, Viktoria Kuzmova from Slovakia in a 3-6 7-6 6-2 victory which took two hours and 23 minutes. The world number 45 in doubles has an ironic career-high singles ranking of 45th, but entering the tournament came in at 136th. At 26, Friedsam was five years her opponent’s senior, but proved too good on the day, downing the 21-year-old Kuzmova with some good work off her serve. Friedsam dropped the first set 6-3, but bounced back to take out the match in three, surviving 13 aces from her opponent, and serving with 64.6 per cent efficiency. She also won a whopping 71.9 per cent off her serve and broke five times to dour throughout the contest. It was the second consecutive seed Friedsam had bundled out after shocking second seed, Kristina Mladenovic in the Round of 16.

Now Friedsam takes on seventh seed, seventh seed Daria Kasatkina in the semi-finals after the Russian knocked out Italian, Camila Giorgi 6-2 4-6 6-4. In the other two semi-finals, top seed and tournament favourite Sofia Kenin again had a tough challenge but moved through with a 6-1 6-7 6-2 victory over Oceane Dodin, while her next opponent Alison Van Uytvanck defeated Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-2.

QUARTER FINALS RESULTS:

[1] Sofia Kenin (USA) defeated Oceane Dodin (FRA) 6-1 6-7 6-2
[3] Caroline Garcia (FRA) defeated [5] Alison Van Uytvanck (BEL) 2-6 2-6
[7] Daria Kasatkina (RUS) defeated Camila Giorgi (ITA) 6-2 4-6 6-2
Anna-Lena Friedsam (GER) defeated [8] Viktoria Kuzmova (SVK) 3-6 7-6 6-2