WITH two events currently in progress, the Serbia Ladies Open continues to be plagued by rain delays seeing no Day 6 matches go ahead, while the Emilia-Romagna Open in Parma, Italy, went full steam ahead with four huge quarter finals setting up a massive day of semi-finals action tomorrow.

There were two entirely seeded clashes for the day, with one a battle between American teens and the other a three-hour blockbuster. The first saw third seed 17-year-old Coco Gauff continue her excellent form with a victory over 19-year-old Amanda Anisimova, clinching the quickest win of the day in one hour and 21 minutes, 6-3 6-4.

“I was pretty satisfied with the way I played,” Gauff said post-match. “I do think I could have served a little bit better, but other than that, I was pretty happy with the way I played today.”

Whilst the duo have gone toe-to-toe before, this encounter marked their first meeting since 2017, and the first time they have met on the professional circuit. Gauff won 73.7 per cent of her first serve points off a 60 per cent clip, and whilst it was not her best efficiency hitting four aces for five double faults, it was much mroe effective than Anisimova’s 40 per cent off a 53.6 per cent clip.

“In the second set, I was actually missing a lot of balls in the first three games, I think I lost like seven or eight points in a row,” Gauff said. “And then I honestly decided to go for bigger targets, and just focus on hitting the ball deeper instead of trying to hit winners.”

The second seeded clash saw sixth seed Wang Qiang defeat second seed Petra Martic in three hours straight, requiring three sets to claim the 7-6(4) 3-6 7-5 victory. The Chinese talent was both more effective and more consistent on serve, and hit 25 winners, making her way into her first WTA semi since mid-2019. Martic struggled to perform despite the shaky scoreline, hitting a whopping 41 unforced errors throughout.

An in-form Sloane Stephens will take on Wang in the semi finals, after claiming a solid one-hour and 25-minute victory, 6-3 6-0 over Italian Sara Errani. Stephens hit 26 winners to Errani’s 10, and won 60.7 per cent of the total points along with the last eight games of the match to claim victory. Katerina Siniakova is the final player to head into the semis, taking on Gauff following a 7-5 6-1 sweep of eighth seed Caroline Garcia.

EMILIA-ROMAGNA OPEN QUARTER FINALS RESULTS: 

[6] Wang Qiang (CHN) defeated [2] Petra Martic (CRO) 7-6 3-6 7-5
[3] Coco Gauff (USA) defeated [5] Amanda Anisimova (USA) 6-3 6-3
Katerina Sinakova (CZE) defeated [8] Caroline Garcia (FRA) 7-5 6-1
Sloane Stephens (USA) defeated Sara Errani (ITA) 6-3 6-0

Picture credit: Marta Magni / MEF tennis