Svitolina to meet Kerber in semifinal

Angelique Kerber and Elina Svitolina will meet in a Dubai Championships semifinal on Friday after both had quick straight-sets wins.

Top seed Svitolina defeated Japan’s Naomi Osaka 6-2 6-4 on Thursday while German sixth seed Kerber beat Czech Karolina Pliskova 6-4 6-3.

Kerber improved her record over Pliskova to 7-3 after winning five of their last six matches. Kerber claimed her 15th win of the season, pulling her level for the lead on the WTA circuit with No 1 Caroline Wozniacki.

“I was playing quite good today, serving well was the key for the match,” Kerber said.

“She hit the ball really hard, serving good. I was trying to put good returns back, and just play my game. I have much more confidence than when I started the year where I actually had no idea where I was, especially after last year. I have already so many matches under my belt, so that gives me much more match confidence,” Kerber said.

“I’m going out there and just thinking about the next match, the next point — nothing else.”

Pliskova was playing her first Dubai quarterfinal since finishing runner-up three years ago.

Svitolina ended a run of two 2016 losses to Osaka, ranked 48th and the first Japanese quarterfinalist since 2004.

“I had a couple of tough matches against her. I had to be ready for her to come back,” Svitolina said.