Anne routs Romanian to reach final four
Anne sees off qualifier to make Warsaw semi-finals…
Anne Keothavong stormed into the semi-finals of the Warsaw Open on Thursday with an over-whelming victory over Ioana Raluca Olaru, a Romanian qualifier.
Hackney-born Anne dominated from the first point breaking straight away to demolish Olaru 6-0, 6-1 at the $600,000 clay event.
It will be Anne’s third semi-final of the year after Auckland and Memphis, her first ever Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier semi-final and the first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour clay-court semi-final of her career.
Keothavong will now play eighth seed Ukranian Alona Bondarenko (world No.39) who cruised past former world No.1 Maria Sharapova 6-2, 6-2.
The victory makes Anne the first British semi-finalist at a clay-court women’s tournament since Shelly Walpole reached the semi-finals of the Swedish Open and Jo Durie made the last four of the French Open, both in 1983, and will almost certainly put her back in the top 50 (48).
If she wins the semi-final she could break into the top 40 (the last British woman to do so was Durie in Aug 1992).
“I played well but I think that my opponent was probably a bit tired, to be honest… I felt pretty good out there and I think I was allowed to be aggressive and play the way I want to play. I knew she would be tired and that there was an opportunity there. I really wanted to go out there and get the win today.
“I think I can be really proud that I’ve reached the semis on clay, which is my least favourite surface, and especially because this is a Premier event and it’s the first time I’ve done it at the highest level.
“I’m finding my form and I’m getting used to competing at this level. I expect tomorrow to be tough, though. I played Bondarenko before a couple of years ago and lost to her and she’s been playing pretty well lately.
“She’s just come off beating a former World No.1 and a Grand Slam Champion and she’ll be a very tough to beat.
“It would mean an awful lot to get to a first final after getting to the semis a few times, and it would mean even more because it’s on clay. I’ve got to get past the semi-finals sooner or later and this would be a good week to do it.”