Zheng stuns high seed Kasatkina to succeed in Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open semi-final

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China’s Qinwen Zheng confirmed why she is one in all tennis’ rising stars because the World No. 29 eradicated high seed and World No. 8 Daria Kasatkina within the quarter-finals of the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open.

At the International Tennis Centre, forty-eight hours after knocking out fifth seed Jelena Ostapenko, Zheng returned to Stadium Court and produced one other unbelievable efficiency towards Kasatkina.

The Chinese teen dropped solely three video games to safe her place within the semi-finals after a dominating 6-1, 6-2 victory towards Kasatkina, dictating from the beginning and taking the primary set in simply 33 minutes.

Her confidence soared because the match progressed, and whereas Kasatkina tried to seek out her rhythm, she may do little to disrupt Zheng’s play. At 5-2 up, Zheng transformed her second match level to e book her place within the subsequent spherical.

It was her third profession victory over a top-10 participant following final yr’s wins towards Ons Jabeur in Toronto and Paula Badosa in Tokyo.

She stated: “I’m really happy with my performance tonight. I played good tennis and was aggressive. It wasn’t easy as she’s a very consistent player and I am happy to have given my best. It doesn’t matter who I face next because it will be a very difficult match.”

Earlier within the day, Olympic champion and World No. 9 Belinda Bencic beat USA’s Shelby Rogers 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, to arrange a last-four conflict towards sixth seed Beatriz Haddad Maia.

The opening set noticed each gamers maintain their serve, resulting in a tie-break which Bencic gained. The Swiss then picked up the place she left off within the second set, racing to a 5-2 lead earlier than sealing the match.

Bencic stated: “I’m very happy to come through this match. It wasn’t the prettiest of matches but I was happy to win the first set after a tight tie-break, I stayed focused until the end of the match.”

Bencic will now face Haddad Maia who recovered from a set down towards third seed Elena Rybakina to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile, within the doubles class, Monica Niculescu and Miyu Kato certified for Saturday’s semi-final after beating Zhaoxuan Yang and Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3.

They will play Luisa Stefani and Shuai Zhang, whereas Desirae Krawczyk and Giulian Olmos will tackle Shuko Aoyama and Hao-Ching Chan for a spot within the remaining.