Wozniacki shocked in St Petersburg quarters
MOSCOW: Australian Open champion and world number one Caroline Wozniacki lost 76 (7/2), 6-3 to local player Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Friday.
Fresh from her first ever Grand Slam title the Dane had raced to the quarter-finals here but had been expecting the Russian to give her a difficult time.
"It's gonna be difficult but I'm excited for it," the 27-year-old said ahead of he clash with the sixth seed Kasatkina.
Fourth seed and Defending champion Kristina Mladenovic of France made an important step to retaining her title with a straightsets win over Czech Katerina Siniakova on Friday.
Mladenovis, ranked 10th in the world, prevailed 6-4, 6-3 to book a semi-final spot and to record her second win over the 21-year-old Siniakova in their fifth head-tohead meeting.
Mladenovic will face Kasatkina.
"It was a very good match as she (Siniakova) has been on great all season," Mladeniovic said oncourt after the match. "I'm very happy with the intensity that I've put into the game today.
"No doubts the semi-final will be extremely difficult as Dasha (Kasatkina) is such a talented youngster and she always plays at her top in front of her home crowd."
Meanwhile, Czech two-time former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova cruised comfortably into the last four losing just two games in her 58-minute match with reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-0, 6-2.
In the match for a place in the final Kvitova, who appeared in the main draw courtesy of a wild card, will clash with Germany's Julia Goerges, who ousted another Russian Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-3.
"At this tournament every opponent is very hard to beat and I will need to show my best tennis to win the semi-final," Goerges said.