The American Sloane Stephens and the Czech Marie Bouzkova qualified this Saturday for the final of the Zapopan Open who will play on Sunday, after beating Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya and China’s Qiang Wang, respectively.
In the first game of the day, Sloane, seeded sixth in the tournament, advanced thanks to an injury to Kalinskaya, who left the tied match; 6-3 for the European in the first set, 7-2 for the North American in the second.
Stephens, 57th in the ranking, had problems with her serve at the start, suffering from the accuracy of the Russian’s backhand, who broke her in the second and fourth games to lead her 4-1 in the first set that she ultimately won 6-3. with another break in game nine.
In the second set Kalinskaya, number 100 in the world, broke in games one and three, going up 3-0; Stephens reacted with two breaks, but continued to have trouble getting his serve in and the European broke her in game seven.
With 4-3 in favor, the 23-year-old Russian went to the locker room, where she received medical attention for a discomfort in her hipon his return suffered the eighth game break and failed to prevent Stephens from going up 5-4.
The Moscow-born was increasingly sore, even with difficulty walking, and with the score 6-5 against, she suffered a break in the twelfth game, fell 7-5 in the sleeve and withdrew from the match due to injury..
In the other semifinal, the Czech Marie Bouzkova eliminated the Chinese Qiang Wang in straight sets 6-3, 6-3.
In the first set the parity between Bouzkova; who eliminated the champion, the Spanish Sara Sorribes, in the quarterfinals; and Wang was broken until game seven, in which the Czech capitalized on her position with a triple break point that put her ahead 4-3.
The born in Prague, number 96 in the world, did not let go of the moment of the sleeve that took 6-3 with another break in the ninth game.
In the second set, the 30-year-old Wang was more aggressive with drives to the net and crossbows; she broke in game three and took a 3-1 lead on her serve. Bouzkova returned with breaks in the sixth and eighth games; she took a 5-3 lead and with her serve finished it 6-3.
