Canada’s Bianca Andreescu outlasted Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (3) in a battle of former Grand Slam winners Friday in the quarterfinals of the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Osaka scored three straight points to move ahead 3-2 in the third-set tiebreaker before Andreescu finished her off with five consecutive points of her own. Now ranked just No. 228 in the world, Andreescu reached her first semifinal of 2024 and is vying for her first singles title since winning the 2019 U.S. Open.
Andreescu’s next opponent will be Dalma Galfi of Hungary, who beat Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia 7-5, 6-3. Galfi finished that match with a 6-0 advantage in aces.
No. 2 seed Liudmila Samsonova of Russia defeated Belgian Greet Minnen 6-4, 7-5. Her semifinal foe will be either No. 3 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova of Russia or 19-year-old Robin Montgomery, who led their match 1-0 when it was suspended.
Rothesay Open
No. 1 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia sailed into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Czech opponent Linda Fruhvirtova in Nottingham, England.
Jabeur has a date set with Czech sixth seed Karolina Pliskova for Saturday at the rain-delayed tournament.
Francesca Jones of Great Britain finished her 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win over Ashlyn Krueger. Jones was two points away from winning Thursday when rain postponed the end of the match.
The only other match completed Friday saw favorable results for another Brit, Katie Boulter. The No. 3 seed defeated No. 5 Magdalena Frech of Poland 6-2, 6-4 to become the first player to punch her ticket to the semifinals.
–Field Level Media
