Top seed Emma Navarro faced an in-form Anna Blinkova who saved an amazing 6 of 7 break points and won 50% of second serve points in the opening set. Blinkova broke the world No. 8 twice to win 6-4. In the second, Blinkova continued where she left off and won four games in a row from 1-1 to jump out to a whopping 5-1 double break advantage.
Although Navarro saved a couple of match points and broke Anna Blinkova back once to peg the score to 5-3, that was as close as she got. Blinkova hardly put a foot wrong all evening, as she saved a total 10 of 13 break points to thwart Navarro of any comeback, winning in straight sets 6-4 6-3.
Blinkova: “I love playing here and I’m feeling great. I reached the semis here last year, seems I always play well in Hong Kong. I get a lot of support from the fans too. My coach kept telling me to stay mentally strong and that’s what I did. I felt great tonight.”
After conceding her opening service game to trail 0-3, Ajla Tomljanovic took six consecutive games from McCartney Kessler to win the first set 6-3. The American 5th seed, winner of the WTA 250 Cleveland title this year, was then forced to retire with an injury.
Game, set, and match Tomljanovic.
Tomljanovic: “It’s not the way you want to win a match, but I’m very excited to be in the semis.”
Suzan Lamens of the Netherlands trailed by a break twice in the opening set but fought back to even things up at 4-4 against Varvara Gracheva. She then conjured the crucial service break in the ninth game before holding serve to take the first set 6-4.
Lamens, who beat Kristina Mladenovic and Clara Tauson en route to the WTA 125 Oeiras Ladies Open earlier this season, broke Gracheva again to open the second set with a 2-0 lead. She further broke Gracheva to jump out to a 4-1 lead only to see her opponent break back twice in succession to go up 5-4.
After Lamens saved a break point for 5-5, she managed to break Gracheva again to lead 6-5 with a running forehand down the line winner. To her credit, Gracheva broke back with some relenting groundstrokes to force a tiebreak. With Lamens serving at 5-4 in the breaker, Gracheva produced two mini-breaks before she ripped a backhand down the line winner to even at a set apiece.
Gracheva then produced the lone break in the ninth game before serving out the third set for a hard-fought 4-6 7-6(5) 6-4 quarterfinal victory.
“It was not an easy match. Luckily, it wasn’t the hottest today of the week. I’m happy to go through to another semifinal and the chance to go even further.”
Sixth seed Clara Tauson was dominant on her own serve, while breaking Nao Hibino five times in all to register a commanding 6-1 6-1 victory to progress to the semifinals. Tauson, currently ranked No. 72, had her breakout year in 2021 when she captured tour titles at Lyon and Luxembourg in addition to a WTA 125 title at Chicago.
In the semifinals on Saturday, Blinkova will face-off with Tomljanovic in the top half of the draw, with the Aussie holding a 3-0 head-to-head record. Their most recent encounter took place at Birmingham on grass where Tomljanovic won 6-2 6-1.
The bottom half of the draw will pit Varvara Gracheva against Clara Tauson. They are 1-1 head-to-head with Gracheva winning on clay in 2021 at Saint Malo in three sets, while Tauson returned the favour later that year on the hardcourts of the WTA 125 Limoges, also in three sets.