Sevastova has been playing the best tennis of her career thus far.
ESTORIL, Portugal— Anastasija Sevastova’s stellar year is set to continue with an upcoming semifinal appearance at the Estoril Open.
This will be the Latvian’s second semifinal appearance in what has been her breakthrough season. Her previous semifinal appearance came at the Monterrey Open in Mexico in March.
Her second semi-final appearance was assured when she defeated Australian Anastasia Rodianova 7-6(6), 6-2 in Thursday’s quarter finals.
Sevastova’s key factor was her ability to win points on her first serve with a 79% conversion rate compared to Rodianova’s 53 %
It was certainly not one-way traffic with the Australian managing to break her opponent on three occasions, but Sevastova continued to demonstrate — as she has throughout the week — an ability to break straight back taking away any advantage her opponent may have had.
In the semifinals, Sevastova will meet one of only two remaining seeds, Shuai Peng of China. Sevastova should not be overwhelmed by facing the 7th seed, keeping in mind she has already knocked out no.1 seed Ágnes Szávay in the first round.
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