Lausanne hosts another WTA 250 level tournament apart from the Hamburg European Open, which contributs in this week's ending up of the European clay season in WTA. Two rounds are already completed, which emerged the line-up of the quarterfinals, scheduled to be played on Friday.
Diane Parry (9) vs. Alize Cornet (7)
The tournament in Lausanne is very successful for the French players so far, as three of them advanced into quarterfinals. Surely at least one of them will play in the semis, as Diane Parry and Alize Cornet will fight between each other for the spot in final four. Parry got gifted a spot in a draw, which was initially owned by Irina Camelia Begu. The Romanian was scheduled to be a top seed, but withdrew from the tournament in a last minute. The French was the best ranked from all the unseeded players, which gave her a chance to get into spot, which was practically reserved for top seed. Parry made a good use of it, as she defeated Fiona Ferro and Danka Kovinic to advance into her first quarterfinal on the WTA level this year.
Alize Cornet bounces back after miserable start of the season. The experienced French fought out her place in QF after two challenging matches against home representatives. Cornet won two three-setters against Viktorija Golubic and Jil Teichmann to secure her second advance into quarters this year after the grass event in Nottingham last month.
Ana Bogdan (3) vs. Clara Burel
The Romanian approached Lausanne just after winning the challenger on her home soil. Bogdan was the best player in the WTA 125 event played in Romanian's Iasi last week. She prevailed in the all-Romanian final against Irina Camelia Begu and took the title, which lifted her up into 39th place in the WTA rankings, highest in her career so far. Bogdan continues her great run of form and extended her winning strike to 7. Two opening matches in Lausanne was not easy for the 3rd seed, as she needed three sets in both the duels against the home representative Simona Waltert and the Slovenian Dalila Jakupovic.
Clara Burel is the third out of French players, who made it through into quarters. The current world's number 84 advanced into QF after performing two upsets over the players, who showed some good run of form on clay in recent weeks. Burel faced both the finalists of the WTA 125 Nordea Open, played in Bastad two weeks ago. The French was not the favorite neither against Olga Danilovic in first round, nor against Emma Navarro in second match, but dominated both the favorized opponents to advance into QF without losing a single set so far.
Ana Bondar vs. Tamara Zidansek
The Hungarian is the cause of the biggest upset in the tournament so far, as she advanced into quarters after defeating Mirra Andreeva in straight sets. The 16 years-old was considered as a possible favorite of whole the tournament, after being a sensation of two recent Grand Slams in Paris and London. The youngster has proved her skills in the opening match against Dayana Yastremska, as she gave away just 2 games for the Ukrainian. Ana Bondar was rated as an underdog before the match against Andreeva, as the odds for her win were as high as 5.88.
Andreeva started the match as expected, leading by 3-0 after an early break and serving for the set with a score 5-3. Bondar denied losing the opening set, as she broke her opponent back in the crucial moment and won all the following games, including the tiebreak with a score 7-3. Second set started simillarly, as Bondar lost her serve in the opening game, and Andreeva was on the road to level the sets score, leading by 3-1. Bondar managed to switch the momentum again, as she won 5 games in a row since then, to secure the QF spot with a surprising straight sets victory.
Tamara Zidansek will be the opponent of the Hungarian in QF after performing two convicing victories against decent clay court players. Zidansek started her campaign in Lausanne from eliminating the 4th seed Lucia Bronzetti and continued the good performance in second round against Sara Sorribes Tormo. It's the second quarterfinal on the WTA levelfor the Slovenian, after the run in Bogota's WTA 250 in April.
Elina Avanesyan (8) vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto (2)
The Italian became the highest seed of the tournament after withdrawal of Irina Camelia Begu and made her job done well so far, but the road into quarters was more than bumpy for her. Cocciaretto was close to face an upset from the home crowd's favorite Celine Naef, as early as in the first round. The current world's number 159 won the opening set and was leading even by 4-1 and 5-3 in second set. Naef missed the opportunity to serve for the set, as Cocciaretto broke her back in 9th game, but another opportunity to close this match appeared in 12th game. The Italian faced a breakpoint, which was the matchpoint at the same time, but saved it well and forced the tiebreak, where she prevailed by 7-1. Cocciaretto won the whole thing by 3-6 7-6(1) 6-2 and advanced into second round, where she needed to fight another three-sets duel against Julia Riera. This time without a necessity to defend matchpoints, but after more than 2,5 hours of battle, Cocciaretto has eventually found her spot in the quarters.
Elina Avanesyan continues her great run of form, advancing into third quarterfinal of the WTA event after her storming campaign in Roland Garros, where she became known to the wider audience due to advancing into round of 16 as a lucky loser from the qualies stage. The first match in Lausanne was not a difficult task for the Russian, as her fellowcountry Evgeniya Rodina pulled out due to an injury, while being a set and break down already. Second match against Chloe Paquet was much more difficult, as Avanesyan lost the opening set by 2-6 and needed to come back from being a break down in the early stages of second set. She prevailed to overturn this match, and secured her spot in quarters by winning 2-6 7-5 6-1.
