We will have an all-Italian clash between Camila Giorgi and Karin Knapp and a match between the tournament’s sole seed Karolina Pliskova and Anna-Lena Friedsam in the semifinals of the $250,000 Generali Ladies Linz.
The first to make the final four was the 59th-ranked recent Tashkent champion Knapp, who avenged her straight-set US Open loss to Tsvetana Pironkova by defeating the Bulgarian 6-4 4-6 6-4, despite making eight double faults. The world No.42 Giorgi was the next to take stage, setting up a meeting with her countrywoman by beating Marina Erakovic 6-3 7-5.
Later, the world No.94 Friedsam, qualifier who had defeated third seed Dominika Cibulkova in the first round, earned her maiden career semifinal with a 4-6 6-2 6-3 triumph over Stefanie Voegele. Her next opponent will be the seventh-seeded Pliskova, who wrapped up the semifinal field by taking out Madison Brengle 6-4 6-4.
The tournament’s two biggest names were Eugenie Bouchard and Ana Ivanovic, but they hadn’t even played their second-round matches, having withdrawn to save themselves for the WTA Championships in Singapore. Still, our photographer Jimmie48 managed to take photos of the stars while they were still there, so make sure to check out our Linz galleries from Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
