No. 5 seed Maja Chwalinska continued her surge through the Singapore Tennis Open draw by dethroning defending champion and No. 4 seed Elise Mertens 6-2, 6-2 in the quarterfinals. The Roland Garros finalist has conceded just 11 games in three matches this week so far.<\/p>\n
The latest of those was the most significant for a number of reasons. Chwalinska not only booked her place in her first semifinal since her shock run to the Roland Garros title match as a qualifier in June — and her second tour-level semifinal overall — but she notched her first win over a Top 20 opponent.\u00a0Her Parisian run had featured a trio of victories over players ranked between No. 21 and No. 24 — Mertens, Anna Kalinskaya and Diana Shnaider.<\/p>\n
That defeat of Mertens had been one of Chwalinska’s most dominant performances on the clay of Roland Garros, a 6-4, 6-0 second-round rout. She reprised it efficiently on the indoor hard courts of Singapore, once again dropping just four games to the Belgian. The 24-year-old provided no consistent rhythm for Mertens to work with, repeatedly drawing her into error by mixing up biting slices, high topspin and sudden injections of flat pace. Mertens — who was playing her first match of the week after receiving a first-round bye and a second-round walkover from Barbora Krejcikova — was rarely given an opportunity to settle.<\/p>\n
Mertens had started the match with aggressive intent, advancing to net and staying with Chwalinska through the first four games. But Chwalinska steadily dismantled this strategy: from 2-2, she reeled off seven consecutive games, and nine of the next 10, to jump out to 5-1 in the second set. Mertens’ error count climbed sharply to a total of 40, while Chwalinska’s creativity with drop shots and lobs came increasingly to the fore as the match went on.<\/p>\n
Though the Pole’s signature game style is based around finesse rather than power, her impressive spot serving also managed to keep Mertens at bay. Winning 70% of her first serve points and 60% behind her second delivery, Chwalinska did not face a break point until the penultimate game of the match.<\/p>\n
That proved to be Mertens’ last stand as the Wimbledon quarterfinalist broke for the first time — but an unruffled Chwalinska closed the match out on return in the next game, which featured her finest point of the match, a perfect combination of drop shot, lob and forehand pass.<\/p>\n
“It’s impossible to play great every single week, so it’s just about consistency and work and you gotta be patient also,” Chwalinska said in her on-court interview. “I’m happy that I stayed quite patient, I worked hard and it’s paying off now. I had some tough weeks so this one tastes pretty good, I must admit.”<\/p>\n
In the semifinals, Chwalinska will take on either No. 1 seed Mirra Andreeva in what would be a rematch of the Roland Garros final, or No. 6 seed Leylah Fernandez for the first time.<\/p>\n
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