Marketa Vondrousova on Friday reached her first semifinal since clinching the Wimbledon title final July when she shocked world quantity two Aryna Sabalenka on the Stuttgart clay-court event.
The sixth-seeded Czech got here by way of 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in simply over two hours.
It was the 24-year-old’s first win over Sabalenka in six years after dropping 4 in a row between 2018 and 2023.
Australian Open champion Sabalenka had been making an attempt to make the Stuttgart last for a fourth successive 12 months.
The highly effective Belarusian crunched 35 winners to Vondrousova’s 17, however dedicated 48 unforced errors in comparison with 19.
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Wimbledon champion Vondrousova crucially transformed seven of eight break factors whereas Sabalenka solely capitalised six instances from 15 alternatives.
Vondrousova will face both third-ranked Coco Gauff, the US Open champion, or Marta Kostyuk of Ukraine for a spot in Sunday’s last.
Earlier fourth-seeded Elena Rybakina defeated Jasmine Paolini 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
She’s going to face both two-time defending champion and top-ranked Iga Swiatek or former US Open winner Emma Raducanu for a spot within the last.