Yaroslava Shvedova and Nao Hibino were the only seeded players to reach the semifinals at Hua Hin, a new WTA 125K event. Shvedova, the fourth seed, will play Qiang Wang of China in the semifinals. Hibino, the third seed, will face her fellow countrywoman from Japan Naomi Osaka, this year’s WTA Rising Stars Invitational champion.
Shvedova of Kazakhstan defeated Chinese number three player Ying-Ying Duan in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4. Shvedova played aggressively forcing her opponent to commit errors and controlled her serve winning 80% of her first service points. Duan dropped serve four times in the match, compared to only one time for Shvedova. The two players faced each other one previous time in New Haven, with that match also going to Shvedova in straight sets.
Hibino, who recently won her first WTA title at the Tashkent Open, beat hometown Luksika Kumkhum in straight sets: 6-4, 6-3. After struggling to start the match, the twenty year-old came from a break down in the first set and saved several breakpoints in the eight game to go ahead 5-4. Kumkhum’s play was inconsistent and she won only 42% of her service points in the match.
The battle of big-serving teenagers went to Osaka as she bested Fangzhou Liu of China in three sets: 6-7,6-1, 6-3. Osaka did not drop serve in the match, hit twelve aces, had no double faults, and won 74% of het service points.
Wang, playing very solidly, got the best of Su-Wei Hsieh of Taipei in their quarterfinal match that lasted just over an hour. Hsieh was not able to produce her best tennis that had helped her upset the 2nd seed, Saisai Zheng in the previous round.
