Thursday was a day of quarterfinal matches in WTA 500 Rothesay International tournament in Eastbourne. The line-up was expected to deliver some delightful battles between top notch players, but two of the matches have not ended up well with two of the big names pulling out of the court during the play.
Gauff defeats Pegula in a hit clash
The match between Cori Gauff and Jessica Pegula was a blockbuster match-up, definitely the most exciting one out of all the matches played so far this week on paper. Gauff was looking really strong in two previous rounds and proved a good form in a clash between two Americans ranked in top 10 of WTA rankings. The match started with both sides breaking each other in 2nd and 3rd game, but Gauff took the lead in decisive moments of the set and won it 6-3. Pegula started second set much better and quickly moved into 3-0 lead with a break advantage, giving away just two single points during this period. It was all about a good performance of the world's number 4, as her younger friend raised up the level again and won 6 games in a row to secure the relatively easy victory 6-3 6-3 after just 70 minutes of play.
Gauff will play another all-American match in the semis, facing Madison Keys. The world's number 25 who starts the grass season this week, is still yet to lose a set in Eastbourne as she defeated Petra Martic 6-4 6-1.
Two withdrawals
Caroline Garcia was a highest seed of the tournament and her match-up against Daria Kasatkina was expected to be another exciting QFs clash, but it got ended up prematurely due to a shoulder injury, which forced Garcia to pulled out of a match. Kasatkina has won the opening set 6-2 after the series of 4 games won in a row. Garcia has withdrawn after 3 games of second set while losing her serve in 3rd game.
Kasatkina will play against Camila Giorgi in the semis. The Italian was paired up against Jelena Ostapenko in the quarters. The Latvian was seemingly not feeling well on the court, definitely looking tired, overwhelmed and dizzy. Despite this, the winner of last week's WTA 250 Rothesay Open in Birmingham was playing quite a competitive match against Giorgi, losing the opening set after an intense tiebreak, ended up with a score 10-8 for the Italian. Ostapenko has called the medical time out and withdrew after the first set eventually. The world's number 17 could suffer for a big matchload in recent weeks, playing two intensive tournaments in a row with both singles and doubles commitment.
The semifinals will be played on Friday with a final settlement to get place on Saturday, just two days before the start of main draw matches in Wimbledon Championships.
