It was quarter-finals day at the International Strasbourg Open on Thursday and four matches scheduled plus one second round match that was cancelled due to the rain yesterday and one second round match needed to be finished.
First up on Center court was the Romanian Sorana Cirstea taking on the tournament number six seed Shuai Zhang from China. The world number 61 managed pull off the upset 6-2, 6-1 in dominating fashion. Even though technically this match was a second round encounter Cirstea will automatically move on to the semi finals due to the withdrawal of Bianca Andreescu.
After her match in her post match press conference Cirstea gave her thoughts on the match and how pleased she was to get a win against a seeded opponent.
“I think the beginning of the match was quite level and it was quite important and I was happy I was able to stay strong, she plays flat and deep and also I hadn’t played her in a while so I had to adjust, I think both sides on the forehand and the backhand worked quite well, I was serving good today and once I got going it was quite good”. She said.
Next on court was another second round match that was suspended due to the rain between the American Shelby Rodgers and the German qualifier Jule Niemeir. It was the German who would get the win beating Rodgers 6-4, 7-6 (6) to book her spot in the quarter-finals to be played last on center court on Thursday.
The third match on court was a battle between the number four seed Yulia Putintseva and the number eight seed Magda Linette. Linette came out on top quite comfortably in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. After her match Linette spoke about how difficult it was for her despite the comfortable scoreline.
” It just looks comfortable and it never is comfortable against Yulia (Putintseva) because you never know when she is going to get fired up again so I had to be careful, patient, and calm to to make sure that I am staying there with my tennis and choosing the right shots for the entire match so I’m really happy I managed to do that even though she started coming back in the second set”.
Barbora Krejcikova booked her spot in the semi finals on Friday beating Ekaterina Alexandrova in straight sets 7-6, 6-1 in 90 minutes. After the match she outlined the keys to winning against a tough opponent.
” Hold the serve and break her” she joked ” I know Ekaterina (Alexandrova) because we played many times, she lives in Prague and we used to play under 16 and 18 but what made the difference is I was fighting for every ball because she is very unpredictable, she was playing very well but all of a sudden she can miss a lot of balls so I think consistency was the key as well and winning the first set tiebreak calmed me down”. Said Krejcikova.
The final match on court featured the German qualifier Jule Niemeier who was playing her second match of the day playing against Aranxta Rus from the Netherlands.
Niemeier is the first qualifier to reach the quarterfinals at the International Strasbourg since 2014 when Silvia Soler Espinosa made the final before losing to Monica Puig.
The German would book her spot in the semis pulling out an impressive 6-4, 6-1 win over her Dutch opponent. After her match, she gave her thoughts on becoming the first qualifier to reach the semifinals since 2014.
” It’s always good to play a semifinal and the fact that I played qualies was to get matches and that I qualified was really good for me, I was really happy and now that I am in the semifinals it is even better”. Niemeier told reporters.
The semifinals are set and on Friday starting at 2:00pm. Sorana Cirstea will play Magda Linette and Babora Krejcikova will play Jule Nimeier.
