Strasbourg International: Ekaterina Alexandrova sets Barbora Krejcikova QF match

On a rain-affected day, there were two more mid-match retirements at the Strasbourg International on Wednesday.

Switzerland’s Jil Teichmann retired with an injury to her lower left leg while down 2-0 in the opening set to fourth seed Yulia Putintseva in their second-round match. The Kazakh will play eighth seed, Magda Linette, for a place in the semi-final. Earlier, on Tuesday, in her round-of-16 encounter against Alize Cornet, Linette, too, advanced to the quarter-final in a similar fashion after the latter was forced to halt play with a hip injury.  

Meanwhile, another French player, Harmony Tan retired in her pre-quarter-final against Arantxa Rus after injuring her right wrist. At the time of Tan’s retirement, Rus was leading 6-1, 1-all in the match. In the quarter-final, Rus will now play either seventh seed Shelby Rogers or Germany’s Jule Niemeier.

The Rogers-Niemeier pre-quarter-final had to be suspended on account of the rain. At the time of its suspension, the qualifier was leading 6-4, 2-1 in the score.

Strasbourg International: Ekaterina Alexandrova-Barbora Krejcikova vie for SF

Third seed Ekaterina Alexandrova and fifth seed Barbora Krejcikova will take on each other in the quarter-final.

Alexandrova, the highest seed remaining in the draw, ousted French wildcard Clara Burel 6-3, 6-4 in 70 minutes. Krejcikova also defeated a French player, Caroline Garcia in the second round. The Czech came from a set down against Garcia to eventually pull through 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 in an hour and 49 minutes.

Following these two losses of Burel and Garcia, there are no French players left in the draw.

On Thursday, at the Strasbourg International, apart from the suspended match between Rogers and Niemeier, one other pre-quarter-final will have to be played. The clash between Sorana Cirstea and sixth seed Shuai Zhang wasn’t played on Wednesday because of the rain. The winner of that match will advance to the semi-final following the withdrawal of top seed Bianca Andreescu who would have been their quarter-final opponent.

from Tennis World USA https://ift.tt/3oUwfSd