17-year-old Olga Danilovic has continued her fairytale week at the Moscow River Cup by knocking out world No.10 Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-3, in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Danilovic, who is making her debut in the main draw of a WTA event this week, refused to be intimidated by the experience of her rival. Hitting 14 winners to only 11 unforced errors and converting four out of her eight break point opportunities. Goerges, who struggled with her first serve, got broken once in the first set and three times in the second.
What a win!
Olga Danilovic reaches her first ever #WTA semifinal with a 6-3, 6-3 win over No.1 seed Goerges at @MoscowRiverCup! pic.twitter.com/Nj8ZXx4tYe
— wta (@WTA) July 27, 2018
The underdog originally failed to qualify for the tournament after losing in the second round of qualifying, but was rewarded a lucky loser spot. In the maid draw Danilovic scored wins over Anna Karolína Schmiedlová and Kaia Kanepi prior to her lastest triumph.
The Serbian has been tipped to be a future star for her country. Since January she has climbed more than 150 places to a ranking high of 187th in the world. Winning two ITF titles in Santa Margherita Di Pula and Versmold. Both of which were on clay. In February she defeated Latvia’s Anastasija Sevastova in a Fed Cup tie. Becoming the first player born after 2001 to achieve a win against a top 20 player. On the junior circuit, Danilovic has been ranked as high as fifth in the world. Between 2016-2017 she won three grand slam doubles titles in the girls competition.
As a result of her triumph, the teenager will take on Aliaksandra Sasnovich in the semi-finals. Sasnovich got a bye into the last four following the withdrawal of Sevastova due to a left thigh injury.
Danilovic is set to break into the world’s top 150 following her latest win. She is one of only three players currently ranked in the top 200 under the age of 17. The other two are Marta Kostyuk and Amanda Anisimova.
In the other section of the draw, Anastasia Potapova takes on Valentyna Ivakhnenko in an all-Russian encounter and Laura Siegemund faces Tamara Zidansek later today.
