Already at the quarterfinal stage of the BNP Paribas Katowice Open seed No.1 Petra Kvitova and seed No.2 Roberta Vinci were the only seeded players left in the draw and they are still in, advancing to the semifinals with straight-set victories.
The world No.13 Vinci opened quarterfinal action, losing just one game, the first of the match, against Karolina Pliskova, the Czech who had taken out sixth seed Kaia Kanepi on her return from injury, but the encounter was more tense than the 6-1 6-0 score suggests. Vinci faced five break points and saved them all, while convering just 6 of the 20 she earned.
Next for Vinci is newcomer Annika Beck of Germany, ranked 74th. Beck advanced to her first WTA semifinal with a 7-6(1) 6-0 victory over Maria Elena Camerin who was the first to take a lead in the match, 5-1. It’s interesting that Vinci has won eight semifinals in her career and seven of those eight times she went all the way to the title, while Beck will be facing a Top 20 player for the first time in her career.
The world No.8 Kvitova beat Petra Martic 6-3 6-2, the Croat who had won their only previous meeting. The fourth semifinalist is yet to be determined as Shahar Peer and Alexandra Cadantu are playing the third set, after two sets that together lasted an hour and a half. (source: WTA Tour, photos: Neal Trousdale)
I really like the game of Annika Beck and I hope she can pull off a victory over Vinci.