Four players are left standing at the 2021 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and all are members of the Top 10: Ashleigh Barty, Elina Svitolina, Simona Halep and Aryna Sabalenka.
Making her Stuttgart debut and playing on red clay for the first time since winning the 2019 French Open, top seed Ashleigh Barty won the last four games to beat sixth seed Karolina Pliskova 2-6 6-1 7-5 in the quarterfinals.
Pliskova served for the match at 5-4 in the third set. The Czech didn’t have match points, but there were many deuces, as Barty was two points from defeat five times.
Barty’s semifinal opponent will be fourth seed Elina Svitolina, who advanced after saving two match points from 2-5 down in the second set to take out defending champion and seventh seed Petra Kvitova 6-7(4) 7-5 6-2.
Having fallen to Ekaterina Alexandrova in their previous two matches, second seed Simona Halep was absolutely superior in all aspects of the game in their today’s match to record a 6-1 6-4 victory.
Aryna Sabalenka is the lowest ranked player left among the last four.
The fifth-seeded Sabalenka saved 15 of 18 break points to overcome Anett Kontaveit 7-5 4-6 6-1. The Belarusian hit seven aces, but outweighed them with eight double faults.
Keep checking back to Women’s Tennis Blog for more exclusive photos from the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.
