Former World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki, who is a wild-card entrant at Wimbledon, had to retire from her quarter-final match at the Bad Homburg Open with a knee injury, sending Emma Navarro into the Last 4, where the American will meet Diana Shnaider, while qualifier Viktoriya Tomova lines up against Donna Vekic in the other half of the draw for a place in Saturday’s final.
33-year old Wozniacki, a wild-card entry here also, fell during the first set chasing down a drop-shot against the 3rd-seeded American, and seemed to hurt her knee, but, after taking a medical timeout, she was able to hold serve to close out the set.
Having trailed by a break in the opener, Navarro the World No 19, dropped just one more game to win the second before taking an early break in the third when Wozniacki retired with the score standing at 4-6 6-1, 1-0.
As a result, Navarro advanced to her 5th semi-final of the season, and the second on grass of her career, having made her first last year in Bad Homburg.
Diana Shnaider found her way past Paula Badosa in a rain-interrupted quarter-final in Germany
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Navarro now will face the young Russian, Diana Shnaider, for a spot in the final, who advanced to her first grass-court semi-final after defeating former World No 2 Paula Badosa from Spain, 6-4 7-6(3), making her second tour-level semi-final of the season.
This was the 4th time the two had met this year, but their first encounter came earlier in Hua Hin, which went the way of the Russian after Badosa had to retire in the second set with a back injury.
The Spaniard got her revenge in Stuttgart, though, beating Shnaider in two easy sets, while their next meeting was at the Italian Open, and again, Badosa proved the better, beating her opponent in 3 sets.
This 4th contest, however, did not go the Spaniard’s way, as Shnaider played the better match to outlast her in straight sets.
It was a complicated contest, though, because rain stopped it midway through, which cut Shnaider’s momentum a little bit.
The opening set was competitive as both had their chances, but the Russian handled the crucial moments better, and Badosa struggled to keep herself in the rallies.
She did better in the second, but then rain stopped play, and they had to come back some 2 hours later, when Shnaider had lost her momentum, which nearly was enough to turn the match around.
Badosa held a break chance at 4-4 to take a 5-4 lead, but Shnaider hung on, and then created a match point chance, which she failed to convert.
It all ended up in a tiebreak, and Shnaider played the better again, scoring a 7-3 win to take the match and reach the 2024 Bad Homburg Open semi-finals for the first time.
Badosa, who also was a wild-card at this event, had struggled with double-faults, 6 of them that combated her 6 aces, and lost to the Russian, whose superior second serve helped carry her into the Last 4.
Donna Vekic received a walkover from defending champion Katerina Siniakova into the semi-finals at Bad Homburg
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Earlier in the day, Croatia’s Donna Vekic advanced to the Last 4 after receiving a walkover from defending champion Katerina Siniakova, the Czech having been forced out of the tournament by a left hip injury.
Vekic will next face Viktoriya Tomova, a Bulgarian qualifier who beat another Russian, Anna Blinkova, 2-6 6-1 7-6(9) to advance.
Tomova staved off 5 match points in the third-set breaker before advancing to her first WTA 500 semi-final as a result.
Qualifier Viktoriya Tomova saved 5 match points before beating Anna Blinkova to make it into her first WTA 500 semi-final on Thursday and plays Donna Vekic
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