Rybakina, Azarenka, Gauff, and Navarro Advance to Semifinals

Tennis stars make their mark in Brisbane International and Auckland Classic tournaments

Second-seeded Elena Rybakina and two-time champion Victoria Azarenka have advanced to the Brisbane International semifinals. Rybakina won the first set 6-1 before 11th-seeded Anastasia Potapova retired from their match with an abdominal injury. Azarenka had a tougher run, needing three sets to advance over 2017 French Open winner Jelena Ostapenko.
Men’s top seed Holger Rune had a 6-2, 7-6 win over James Duckworth to move into a semifinal against Roman Safiullin. No. 2-seeded Grigor Dimitrov also reached the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Rinky Hijikata.
U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff moved into the semifinals of the Auckland Tennis Classic with a 6-1, 6-1 win over Varvara Gracheva of France. Gauff hasn’t dropped a set at the tournament and didn’t drop a set in winning the tournament last year.
Fellow American Emma Navarro also reached the Auckland Classic semifinals with a win over Petra Martic of France 6-4, 4-3. Gauff and Navarro will face each other in the semifinals.
China’s Wang Xiyu beat Diane Parry of France 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in a quarterfinal match at the Auckland Classic that lasted over 3 hours.