Top seed Alize Cornet knocked off Sam Stosur, while Eugenie Bouchard continues to find good form in Gstaad as both won straight sets quarterfinals in Gstaad on Friday.
Cornet recorded a straightforward 6-4, 7-6 victory the onetime US Open champion, putting 71 percent of first serves in play and facing just two break points. The Frenchwoman lost a break advantage in the second set, but recovered to breeze home in the tiebreak.
The world No. 46 won Stosur’s opening two service games to take a 4-0 lead, then survived a rocky final few games to edge in front. Roughly an hour later, she used a pair of errors from Stosur — a loose forehand long and poor ball into the net — to build a 6-2 lead, then used a sublime drop shot to close out the renowned Australian.
Bouchard, her semifinal opponent on Saturday, cruised home in a 7-5, 6-0 decision against Veronika Kudermetova. The Russian served at 4-3 in the first set, but collapsed and lost 10 of the last 11 games. Bouchard, ranked 146th in the world, rattled off 19 consecutive points spanning sets in a display of her dominance.
Kudermetova, playing her fifth match in Switzerland after coming through qualifying, struggled with a leg issue in the second set and went off the court for a medical timeout. It did little to stem the tide, however, as Bouchard rolled to a perfect 12 points out of 12 on her serve in the final frame.
The win gives Bouchard her first semifinal appearance in a year and a half, and her first on clay in more than four years. The 2014 Wimbledon finalist, just 24, will rise at least 23 spots in the rankings and could move into the top 100 with two more wins in Switzerland.
On the bottom half of the draw, 19-year-old Marketa Vondrousova rolled Evgeniya Rodina 6-2, 6-3 in an hour and one minute. Vondrousova converted all five break point chances she had and won an astounding 62 percent of return points — almost equal to what she won on her own serve.
She will meet Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella, continuing her comeback after giving birth in October, after the 32-year-old dispatched Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-1, 6-2. The Spaniard won none of her seven service games and won a woeful 28 percent of points on her racket.
