The top seeds in St.Petersburg are through to the semifinals as Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza chalked up their 38th straight win. Second seeded Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova fell victim to an upset.
Second Seeded Czechs Upset in St.Petersburg
Vera Dushevina and Barbora Krejcikova pulled off the shocker at the St.Petersburg Ladies Trophy in the semifinals. They upset second seeded Lucie Hradecka and Andrea Hlavackova 3-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8. The Czechs stumbled in the first set to fall behind a break at 2-1, but clawed back into the set with a break in the next game and one more in the sixth. Hradecka-Hlavackova would win four straight games to take a stranglehold on the set at 5-2. Their first serves carrying them to all 17 points won on serve for the set.
The second set saw nothing but service holds. Both teams were forced to save break points with the second seeds saving eight altogether. Dushevina-Krejcikova saved the lone break point that they saw. The tiebreak started in the Czechs favor with a mini-break, but they gave it back by the third point. Hradecka-Hlavackova would creep ahead 4-3 before their opponents ran off four of the last five points to pull even at one set each.
The super tiebreak saw both teams struggle on serve, but it was the second seeds who had more trouble as they dropped six of their nine service points to fall 10-8 in the decisive breaker. The win sticks Dushevina and Krejcikova into the final. They will play the winner of Saturday's match between the top seeded team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza - third seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Aranxta Parra Santonja. Hingis-Mirza won their 38th straight match on Friday in the quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-1 win over Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina.
Chans Advance to Semifinals of Taiwan Open
The top seeded Chan sisters had few issues in advancing to the semifinals in Kaohsiung. Hao-Ching and Yung-Jan needed just an hour and ten minutes to get past Marina Melnikova and Mandy Minella 6-2, 6-4. The Chans were perfect in the opening set, saving all four break points they faced. They put pressure on Melnikova-Minella constantly to force two breaks of serve. The second set was a bit more feisty as the Chans dropped serve to open. They would break right back however and find two more breaks to compensate for their own shaky serving. They would close the match out on a break of serve.
Top Seeds Roll in Rotterdam
Defending champions Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau remained in a good groove this week as they beat Gilles Muller and Nenad Zimonjic 6-3, 6-3 in Friday's quarterfinal action. Rojer-Tecau, this week's top seeds, were almost spotless on-serve in the match as they won 80 percent of their service points. Muller-Zimonjic were broken three times in the match and never threatened to get to a break point off the top seeds' serves.
In other action, Alexander Peya and Philipp Petzschner booked a spot in the semifinals opposite of Rojer-Tecau on Friday. Peya-Petzschner pushed past Dominic Inglot and Robert Lindstedt 6-3, 4-6, 10-4. The Killer Ps won just six more points than their opponents in the match, but won when it counted the most in the super tiebreak. Inglot-Lindstedt lost five of seven service points in the super breaker to help sew up the win for Peya-Petzschner.
ATP Buenos Aires: Top Seeds Net Spot in Final
Jean-Sebastien Cabal and Robert Farah need a super tiebreak to finish off a game effort from David Merrero and Frank Moser. The top seeds rallied back from a set down to win 4-6, 6-3, 10-6. Cabal-Farah took the first four points of the super breaker to build an insurmountable lead. The final quarterfinal was also played on Friday with Inigo Cervantes and Paolo Lorenzi moving on after a 4-6, 6-4, 10-6 win over Gero Kretschmer and Alexander Satschko. They will play in the semifinals against Federico Delbonis and Andres Molteni.
Memphis Open Results
(4) S.Johnson-Querrey def. Middlekoop-Koolhoff 6-3, 6-4
Marach-F.Martin def. (3) Butorac-Lipsky 7-5, 6-4
(wc) Fritz-Harrison def. Daniell-Sitak 6-2, 6-7 (4), 12-10