Thursday’s program at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo featured all four quarterfinal matches and the two third-rounders that had been postponed yesterday because of the weather.
Fifth seed Angelique Kerber ousted second seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals in one hour and 13 minutes, 6-4 6-4, and avenged her loss in their last meeting. This was their seventh career encounter and their prior meeting was also in Tokyo, in the 2012 semifinals, when Radwanska dominated Kerber 6-1 6-1. Now their head-to-head record is 4-3 for the Pole.
Seed No.4 Caroline Wozniacki eliminated Lucie Safarova in a three-set match 2-6 6-3 6-2 during one hour and 56 minutes. After the elimination of Safarova, Wozniacki is leading in their head-to-head encounters 3-2. Venus Williams pushed through to the semifinals by defeating Eugenie Bouchard in their first career meeting which lasted just over three hours, 6-3 6(4)-7 6-3.
Petra Kvitova and Svetlana Kuznetsova had to do double duty, because their third-round matches were rescheduled to Thursday due to rain. After advancing past Madison Keys 6-2 6-2 in the beginning of the day, Kvitova returned to the courts in the afternoon and scored a 6-4 6-1 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had beaten seed No.15 Sorana Cirstea earlier in the day 7-6(3) 6-1.
In the semifinals, Venus Williams will meet Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki will face Angelique Kerber. Williams and Kvitova will meet for the third time in their career and so far their head-to-head record is 1-1, while Wozniacki and Kerber are tied in their head-to-head series, 3-3. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)
