Alison Riske rattled through nine successive games in her second match of the day to floor No.2 seed Zarina Diyas in the quarter-finals of the Hobart International, as two Americans moved within a match of Saturday’s final.
On a day that saw the tournament’s top three seeds crash out, Riske overcame an early blip in the first set to overwhelm her opponent, zeroing in her returns to disarm the Kazakh in 61 minutes.
Riske, the only remaining seed in the draw after defeats for Casey Dellacqua, Camila Giorgi and Roberta Vinci, beat Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski 6-2 4-6 6-1 in the morning’s rescheduled second round to reach the last eight.
Diyas had notched up an impressive 7-5 6-1 win against former world No.5 Daniela Hantuchova in her second-round match but struggled from the outset to contain Riske’s flat, pacey groundstrokes.
The world No.42 made the perfect start, breaking twice to open up a 3-0 lead before Diyas found her feet on Centre Court, hitting back with a break in the next game.
When the 21-year-old broke again to level up at 3-3 Riske seemed in danger of making life too easy for her opponent, but a third break settled any tightness and the 24-year-old never looked back. The first set was over in 37 minutes, the second in 24.
“Nothing is ever as easy as it looks,” Riske insisted.
> Match replay: Alison Riske v Zarina Diyas
Up next for Riske is Heather Watson, who continued her fine form in Hobart with a 7-6(0) 6-2 victory over No.9 seed Roberta Vinci. The 22-year-old Briton has come through tight opening sets before easing to straight-sets victories in each of her three matches en route to the semi-finals, riding out a late rally from the Italian to close out the win in an hour and 49 minutes.
After taking seven of the last eight games against Magdalena Rybarikova and eight of the last nine against Sloane Stephens, this time it was nine games in 10 that took her within four points of the semis.
Watson recovered from 5-2 down against Vinci to earn a tiebreak, where a combination of her best tennis and some poor shot choices from the 31-year-old helped her close out the first set in style.
Watson continued to pile the pressure on the Vinci backhand, frustrating the Italian as she moved into a 5-0 lead. Vinci held, and even nicked back a game on Watson’s serve, but the rally merely delayed the inevitable.
It was another sterling performance from Watson, who is thrilled with her form in Hobart so close to the Australian Open.
“It took me a while to figure it out today – I almost lost that first set – but then I started to feel comfortable on the court and really started to loosen up,” she said. “I trusted my game and didn’t revert to just trying to make balls, how I used to play.”
> Match replay: Roberta Vinci v Heather Watson
Six Americans started the week in Hobart, and two will feature in the semi-finals after qualifier Madison Brengle’s Cinderella run continued with a 6-7(3) 6-4 6-4 victory over Casey Dellacqua’s second-round conqueror, Karin Knapp.
The world No.84, playing her sixth match of the week and second of the day, overcame a burst blister on her palm, a running feud with the umpire and Knapp’s considerable firepower to reach the semis.
“That was a tough one,” Brengle said. “I had to do a lot of defending tonight. She gets a tonne on the ball, and trying to absorb the pace I managed to tear a hole in my hand!
On the prospect of facing Japan’s Kurumi Nara in the semis, she added: “We played each other years ago. I know she’s been playing exceptionally well, she’s very solid off both sides. It’s going to be another tough one – but I can’t complain, right?”
Nara overcame a second-set fightback from No.3 seed Camila Giorgi to book her spot in the last four with a 6-1 3-6 6-2 win.
Giorgi, whose second-round opponent Kaia Kanepi withdrew on Thursday morning with a viral illness, hit nine double faults against Nara – an improvement on the 23 she hit against Storm Sanders, but too many against a player as consistent and ruthless as the Japanese No.1.
The Italian certainly had her chances, spurning a dozen break points – Nara saved all eight she faced in the final set – and could not unsettle the world No.43, whose lightning feet bailed her out of trouble time and again.