PARMA, May 20, 2021 (by Lorenzo Carini)

The Emilia-Romagna Open singles draw has reached the semifinal round, which will be played Friday afternoon at Tennis Club Parma. On Thursday, four quarterfinal singles and one doubles quarterfinal matches were held.

Siniakova jumps into semifinals

After beating Clara Tauson and No. 1 seed Serena Williams in the first two rounds, Czech Katerina Siniakova gave a great performance as she defeated France’s No. 53 Caroline Garcia for the fourth time in her career, 7-5, 6-1. It advanced Siniakova to her first semifinal of the season. She won three straight games to close out the first set and jumped out to a 3-0 in the second set before Garcia won a game. Then, Siniakova won the final three games of the match, ending it in one hour and 35 minutes.

“It was really hard at the beginning because Garcia is a very good player,“ Siniakova said. “I’m happy for this result: the match against Serena Williams was amazing, I’m happy to have won again today.”

Gauff wins Next Gen Derby

One more win and one more semifinal for No. 30 Coco Gauff at the WTA level. The youngest player remaining in the Parma draw gave an impressive performance in beating fellow American, No. 40 Amanda Anisimova, 6-3, 6-3, to advance against Siniakova. Anisimova didn’t have many chances to create problems to Gauff in the rematch of their 2017 US Open junior girls’ final. Gauff won six games in a row in the second set to close out the match after trailing 3-0.

🇺🇸 @CocoGauff ➡️ #EmiliaRomagnaOpen final four!

The 17-year-old defeats fellow American teenager Anisimova 6-3, 6-3 in their first meeting on tour. pic.twitter.com/CMGpJTL7j6

— wta (@WTA) May 20, 2021

“I lost six consecutive points in the first part of the second set, then I tried to play deeper. I think I could have served a little bit better today, but I am satisfied for this win,” Gauff said. “Siniakova? She’s a tricky player, I know her as we played each other last season in Ostrava.”

Gauff’s victory improved her provision ranking to No. 27, a career high.

Stephens and Wang advance in bottom half of draw

Sloane Stephens of the United States and Wang Qiang of China are the two semifinalists of the bottom-half of the Parma singles draw. The American Stephens defeated Italian wild card Sara Errani, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0 to reach her first WTA semifinal since 2019. Meanwhile, Wang closed the day with a three-set triumph over No. 2 seed Petra Martic, 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-5, in three hours to reach her first red clay semifinal.

The No. 68 Stephens beat the Bologna-born Errani for the second straight time and first since they last played at the Miami Open in 2012. The 2017 US Open champion is looking to reach her first WTA final since 2018.

The 48th-ranked Wang, seeded sixth in Parma, overcame 31 unforced errors and eight double faults against Martic by hitting 25 winners against Martic, who committed 41 unforced errors. Wang outpointed Martic 121-113.

SINGLES QF – RESULTS

Katerina Siniakova (CZE) d. [8] Caroline Garcia (FRA) 7-5 6-1

[3] Cori Gauff (USA) d. [5] Amanda Anisimova (USA) 6-3 6-3

Sloane Stephens (USA) d. [WC] Sara Errani (ITA) 6-3 6-0

[6] Qiang Wang (CHN) d. [2] Petra Martic (CRO) 7-6(4) 3-6 7-5