No. 1 seed Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan survived an upset bid from Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur and prevailed 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (4) in the quarterfinals of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open on Thursday.
Jabeur saved two consecutive match points in the 12th game of the third set to force a tiebreaker. There, Jabeur ran out to a 4-2 lead before Rybakina took over by winning the final five points.
Rybakina is the last seeded player standing after American Ashlyn Krueger ousted Canadian eighth seed Leylah Fernandez 7-5, 4-6, 6-2. Krueger, the 20-year-old with one previous WTA singles title, out-aced Fernandez 8-1, saved 5 of 11 break points and broke Fernandez’s serve eight times.
In the semifinals, Krueger will face the Czech Republic’s Linda Noskova, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Poland’s Magda Linette. Rybakina will battle Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who beat 2023 Wimbledon champ Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-3.
Transylvania Open
Italy’s Lucia Bronzetti eliminated American third seed Peyton Stearns 6-2, 7-6 (1) in a Round of 16 match in Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Bronzetti fired eight aces without a double fault and moved on to face seventh seed and fellow Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto, a 6-3, 6-0 winner in 69 minutes over Romania’s Ana Bogdan.
No. 1 seed Anastasia Potapova of Russia got past Switzerland’s Viktorija Golubic 6-4, 7-5. Czech fifth seed Katerina Siniakova battled past American Caroline Dolehide 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, and Germany’s Ella Seidel beat Russia’s Anna Blinkova 6-2, 7-6 (5).
–Field Level Media
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