Online
\nSAN JOSE
\nSecond-seeded Spaniard Paula Badosa swept into the semi-finals of the WTA hardcourt tournament in San Jose on Friday with a 7-6 (7\/4), 6-2 victory over rising US star Coco Gauff.
\nBadosa, ranked fourth in the world, twice recovered from a break down in the opening set as she booked a final-four showdown with seventh-seeded Daria Kasatkina, a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 winner over fourth-seeded Aryna Sabalenka.
\nGauff, the 18-year-old who reached her maiden Grand Slam final at the French Open this year, was coming off a lively victory over four-time Grand Slam champion Naomi Osaka on Thursday night.
\nThe sixth-seeded American appeared to be riding the momentum from that win as she emerged from an exchange of three breaks of serve with a 3-2 lead in the opening set on the way to a 5-3 advantage.
\nAfter Badosa held serve, however, Gauff unravelled as she served for the set, firing three double faults to drop her serve as they went to tiebreaker, which Gauff surrendered with another pair of double faults.
\nShe looked rattled as she dropped her opening service game of the second set, Badosa racing to a 5-1 lead and serving out the match with confidence two games later.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s never easy to start against such an aggressive player with a big serve,\u201d Badosa said. \u201cI think I adapted pretty well in the (end) of the first set, and I played a pretty perfect tiebreak, so I\u2019m really happy about that.\u201d
\nThe Spaniard finished with 17 winners to 15 unforced errors, converting half of her eight break chances as Gauff\u2019s 29 unforced errors outpaced her 21 winners.
\nBadosa, who reached her fourth semi-final of 2022, will be taking on Kasatkina for the third time, with both prior meetings coming earlier this year.
\nBadosa beat Kasatkina in straight sets in Sydney in January, but Kasatkina triumphed in straight sets in the clay court tournament in Rome.
\n\u201cShe\u2019s winning a lot of matches, she\u2019s winning against the best players in the world, she\u2019s doing an amazing year,\u201d Badosa said.
\nNinth-seeded Veronika Kudermetova maintained her perfect record against Tunisian Ons Jabeur, topping the third-seeded Wimbledon runner-up 7-6 (7\/5), 6-2.
\nKudermetova has won all three of her meetings against Jabeur in straight sets.
\nIn their latest meeting, Kudermetova\u2019s 30 winners were almost double to fifth-ranked Jabeur\u2019s 17. That included half a dozen aces.
\nKudermetova will face Shelby Rogers, a 6-4, 6-4 winner over fellow American Amanda Anisimova.
\nRogers, ranked 45th in the world, toppled world No. 3 Maria Sakkari, the top seed, in straight sets to reach the quarter-finals.
\nRogers, who opened the tournament with a win over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, has yet to be broken this week and improved to 3-0 against Anisimova.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Online SAN JOSE Second-seeded Spaniard Paula Badosa swept into the semi-finals of the WTA hardcourt tournament in San Jose on Friday with a 7-6 (7\/4), 6-2 victory over rising US star Coco Gauff. Badosa, ranked fourth in the world, twice recovered from a break down in the opening set as she booked a final-four showdown […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276116,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-276105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n