Top seed Anastasia Potapova from Russia reached the semi-finals of the Transylvania Open, the WTA 250 tournament in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, on Friday, ousting German qualifier Ella Seidel, 6-2 6-3.

The Russian World No 32 got off to a good start, moving ahead 3-0, but then suffered a slight collapse as she allowed the 143rd-ranked German to get the break back, and reduce the deficit to 2-3.

It did not take long, however, before Potapova re-asserted full control of proceedings as the No 1 seed responded with back-to-back breaks in the 6th and 8th games to routinely take the first set.

Just as she had started the opener, the Russian also won the opening 3 games of the second, and while the top seed missed out on 3 break point chances to go up by a double break, and also had to save a break point against herself, she still prevailed to go 5-2 up.

Serving to stay in the match, Seidel saved a match point, but it didn’t change the outcome as Potapova converted her 2nd match point on her own serve in the following game.

Potapova is now set to meet lucky loser Aliaksandra Sasnovich for a place in the final, after the Belarusian narrowly upset 4th-seeded Anhelina Kalinina from Ukraine, 2-6 6-4 7-6(3).

Sasnovich came from 3-5 down in the third set to defeat Kalinina after a 2 hour 34 minute quarter-final encounter.

When the Potapova and Sasnovich meet on Saturday, it will be their first meeting in 6 years, the Belarusian having last beaten the Russian, 6-4 7-5, in the 2019 Brisbane International 1st-round.

A lot has changed since then, and Potapova is a two-time WTA champion who has been ranked as high as 21 in the world, while the 128th-ranked Belarusian has yet to win a title.

While Sasnovich has managed to win 3 matches in the main draw as a lucky loser, there is no doubt that the top-seeded Russian arrives in the semi-final match as the clear favourite.

The other semi-final sees Lucia Bronzetti takes on Katerina Siniakova for a place in the final.

In a first-time encounter between Italian compatriots, Bronzetti dropped just 5 games while upsetting the No 7 seed Elisabetta Cocciaretto, 6-1 6-4, in 72 minutes.

Her opponent on Saturday, Czech Doubles No 1 and the 5th seed here, Siniakova, came from 0-3 down in the second set, saved triple set point in the tiebreak, and converted her 5th match point to get past Bulgarian Viktoriya Tomova, 2-6 6-4 7-6(3), in their quarter-final which lasted 2 hours and 34 minutes.

WTAtennis.com