Top-seeded German Julia Goerges rallied back from two points from defeat qualifier Eugenie Bouchard and reach the finals of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open on Friday.
Goerges will return to the final in Luxembourg for the first time since 2010 with her 6-7 (3), 7-5, 6-1 win. She will face Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (5) winner over Ukrainian teenager Dayana Yastremska in the final on Saturday.
Bouchard took command of the first set, gaining a 5-2 lead. Goerges broke her serve to move the set to 5-4, and plagued by unforced errors, Canada’s Bouchard couldn’t close out the set. They wound up in a tiebreaker, which Bouchard sealed after stringing together four straight points to win the opening set.
Bouchard broke Goerges’ serve at 3-3, and up 5-3 and two points from victory, Bouchard couldn’t close out the match. Goerges won that game to be down to 5-4, then ran off eight straight wins to doom Bouchard and move to the finals.
In the other semifinal, former top 10 player Bencic advanced to her first WTA singles final since 2016. It took her 2 hours and 21 minutes to defeat Yastremska, whose eight-match win streak ended Friday. She was attempting to reach her second WTA singles final in two weeks. Last weekend, the 18-year-old won her first singles title in Hong Kong.
Bencic survived 45 winners from Yastremska, but 28 unforced errors did her in, with the match ending on back-to-back forehands into the net.
Kremlin Cup
Qualifier Ons Jabeur moved on to her first-ever WTA singles final with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over No. 5 seed Anastasija Sevastova in Moscow.
Earlier in the week, she had become the first woman from Tunisia to make a WTA semifinal. It took her 1 hour and 38 minutes to defeat Sevastova, from Latvia.
Backed by 45 winners and five service breaks, she rallied back from being down a break twice in the final set to record her third victory over a seeded player in the event.
“This is really amazing and I’m really happy. I gave it all today, and it wasn’t easy because she plays really good,” Jabeur said after the match. “I played a very good first set, especially coming down from a break. I’m really happy that I could control myself, especially at the end of the third set, which was the key to win this match. I hope I can still stay like this and win the last match.”
Jabeur will meet Russian sixth seed Daria Kasatkina on Saturday, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Johanna Konta of Great Britain in the other semifinal.
—Field Level Media