- Unseeded Barbora Krejcikova beats Maria Sakkari 7-5, 4-6, 9-7
- Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova overcomes Tamara Zidansek 7-5, 6-3
The ball hung high in the sky for what felt like an eternity, offering Barbora Krejcikova all the time in the world to think about how badly things could end. Yet despite making 29 backhand unforced errors on Thursday afternoon, as she stood a point away from losing the biggest singles match of her career when serving at 3-5, 30-40 in the third set, she refused. Krejcikova skipped forward and swiped a nerveless backhand drive volley out of the air to save match point with an angled winner.
Forty-five minutes later, after three hours and 17 minutes of nerves, doubt and tremendous fight, the unseeded Krejcikova finally recovered to defeat Maria Sakkari, the 17th seed, 7-5, 4-6, 9-7 to reach a grand slam singles final for the first time.
