Teenage Mirra Andreeva came from a set down to stun Iga Swiatek and reach the semi-finals of the WTA clay-court tournament in Stuttgart on Friday.<\/p>\n
Andreeva<\/a> beat the two-time Stuttgart champion 3-6, 6-4, 6-3<\/a> and will face top seed Elena Rybakina<\/a> in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n Swiatek<\/a> has won four of her six Grand Slams on the French Open clay and was considered among the favourites for the Stuttgart tournament, but struggled against the energetic Russian.<\/p>\n The Pole capitalised on some clumsy baseline errors from her opponent to win the opening set, but Andreeva converted a crucial break point to take the second set.<\/p>\n Swiatek ran out to a two-game lead in the deciding set, but Andreeva broke back twice to take the initiative and the match.<\/p>\n The 18-year-old rising star also eliminated defending champion Jelena Ostapenko<\/a> in the first round of the tournament.<\/p>\n In the later game, Rybakina overcame Leylah Fernandez<\/a> in a mammoth contest that lasted over three hours. The Kazakh came back to edge their quarter-final 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(6)<\/a>.<\/p>\n Earlier on Friday,\u00a0Karolina Muchova<\/a> broke through for a first win over Coco Gauff<\/a>, eliminating the French Open champion in three sets.<\/p>\n Muchova had never beaten world number three Gauff in six matches, including a loss in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open, but prevailed 6-3, 5-7, 6-3<\/a> to reach the Stuttgart semi-finals for the first time.<\/p>\n The 12th-ranked Muchova will face Elina Svitolina<\/a> for a place in the final.<\/p>\n After ensuring Gauff exited the tournament in the quarter-finals for the third straight year, Muchova said she tried not to let the daunting record impact her preparation.<\/p>\n “It was a great fight. I’m just happy that I finally, finally beat her,” Muchova said.<\/p>\n “This was actually our first match on a clay court. On clay, we were 0-0 in the matches – I tried to keep it positive.”<\/p>\n Fourth seed Svitolina moved past Czech Linda Noskova<\/a> 7-6(2), 7-5<\/a> to book her semi-final spot.<\/p>\n The in-form Ukrainian has now reached five semi-finals this season.<\/p>\n Svitolina told reporters she had rediscovered her fighting spirit after a difficult 2025.<\/p>\n “I had a really difficult end of last year, struggling a bit mentally,” Svitolina said.<\/p>\n “I think my fighting spirit is back this year. I’m very pleased with that.”<\/p>\n