Vania King, Risa Ozaki, Duan Ying-Ying, Misa Eguchi: those are the names of the players that will battle for a spot in the final round of Jiangxi Women’s Open in Nanchang. Remaining top-seeds Kurumi Nara and Francesca Schiavone both lost in the quarterfinal competition.
Vania King reaches second semifinal of 2016
Grand Slam doubles champion Vania King successfully claimed her second semifinal appearance of 2016, after her run in Bucharest from one month ago, where she failed to reach the final after a three-set loss to top-seed and eventual champion Simona Halep. She claimed her win today with a straight-set win against Zhang Kai-Lin. The Chinese had scored in Nanchang her first WTA wins of the year, and reached her first WTA quarterfinal since 2014; nevertheless, she couldn’t do much against an in-form American, who got rid of her with a clear 6-0, 6-4 score to book a spot into the last four.
The first set required little struggle from King. After immediately gaining the lead, the American needed to save two break points in the following game, but it was the only time she needed to battle during the set. After that, everything went in her favour, as she dropped only two points to her opponent in the next four games, closing the set to love in 24 minutes. The Chinese’s disastrous performance on serve, with no points scored with her first serve and only two with her second serve, helped the American in her way to claim the set.
The second set saw Zhang more determined to battle, which translated in a series of exchange of breaks that initially kept the game into a balance, with none of the players able to consolidate the lead. A good performance on first serve helped King in this second set too, and with an important hold she earned the chance to serve for the match. On her first match point, she put an end to the battle and secured her spot into the semifinals.
Risa Ozaki upsets Schiavone for her first WTA semifinal
It will be a debut into the last four of a WTA tournament for 22-year-old Risa Ozaki, who already made her breakthrough this year with the quarterfinals she reached at Citi Open, where she upset defending champion Sloane Stephens in the first round. On her route to the semifinals, Ozaki dropped a total of seven games before meeting the former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, who forced her to a comeback battle to advance.
The match started in full control of the Italian, who took all the games and saved three break points to secure a 4-0 lead. From then on, however, all crumbled for Schiavone, who lost four games in a row to let Ozaki level-off to a 4-all score. Both players then found more consistency on serve, until the last game, in which the Italian attack on the Japanese’s serve to win an important break that gave her the set, with a 7-5 score.
Starting from the second game, everything seemed to go wrong on the Italian’s service games. As fast as she had gone 4-0 up in the first, she went 0-4 down in the second, and despite a hold to love in the following game, she didn’t found enough consistency to perform a comeback; Ozaki broke her serve one more time to quickly close the second set 6 games to 1.
The decider saw Schiavone struggling to find the court with her first serve; from 0-3 down, she broke Ozaki to attempt a comeback, but got broken again, letting the Japanese storm ahead to a solid 5-2 lead. Ozaki completed her comeback winning the last two games without dropping a point, helped by both a good performance on first serve and by pushing on Schiavone’s second serve.
Misa Eguchi and Duan Ying-Ying to debut in the last four
Like Ozaki, Misa Eguchi and Duan Ying-Ying will make their debut into a semifinal at a WTA level, both with a clear straight-set win.
Eguchi reached the semifinal without dropping a set, and only once losing more than two games during a set. In the quarterfinals she took on Liu Fangzhou, prevailing on the Chinese with a quick 6-1, 6-2 score line. After an initial hold from the Chinese, the first set fell under’s Eguchi’s full control, and saw the Japanese winning six games in a row to close it in half an hour. The 24-year-old kept her serve consistency during the second set, one more time by rushing ahead after Liu’s first hold to secure a 5-1 lead. She was broken for the first time as she was serving for the match, but it hadn’t been enough to stop her. From 0-40 down in the following game, Liu saved two match points but failed with the third, leaving the Japanese to join countrywoman’s Ozaki in the semifinals.
To continue her run, Eguchi will need to defeat Duan Ying-Ying, who gained her spot by defeating a tired second-seed Kurumi Nara, who yesterday’s rain delay had forced to play two matches in the span of few hours.
After defeating Chang Kai-Chen in the morning (in a match that suffered another rain interruption before being completed), with a 7-5, 6-4 score line, Nara was forced to play a second match, but eventually lost to Duan in straight sets.
The Chinese played a remarkable first set, in which she put in play a strong second serve and a consistent game on returns to save two break points and convert other two, that allowed her to close the set 6-1 in 25 minutes. After a balanced start, the Chinese hit first to take the lead in the second set, but this time Nara broke her back to level-off to 4-all and keep her hopes alive. One last service lost had been fatal to the Japanese, and gave Duan the chance to serve for the match; the Chinese didn’t falter, converted her first match point and advanced to the next round.
With two interruptions and two delays for rain during her matches, the experience in Nanchang hadn’t been the easiest for Kurumi Nara, who probably suffered the consequences in the end. These facts don't, however, belittle Duan’s performance, as she had lost only a set in her run to the semifinals.
On the doubles side, first seeds Wang Yafan and Yang Zhaoxuan successfully got rid of countrywomen’s You Xaodi and Zhu Lin in the quarterfinals. Second seeds Makoto Ninomiya and Shuko Aoyama are the first pair to reach the finals, with a win at the super tie-break against Thailand Nicha Lertpitaksinchai and Peangtarn Plipuech.
Tomorrow’s schedule
Tomorrow will see all action take place on Centre Court. Vania King and Risa Ozaki will kick-off the day, followed by Duan Ying-Ying and Misa Eguchi that will battle for the second place in the final. The last match of the day will see Wang Yafan and Yang Zhaoxuan take on Liang Chen and Lu Jing-Jing in an all-Chinese battle for the last place in the doubles final.