The top three seeds advanced to the semi-finals today at the 2010 McDonalds Burnie International.
The number one seed, Australia’s Jarmila Groth advanced through after finishing off her second round match against Sally Peers on centre court this morning winning the third and final set 6-3. Groth then backed up against qualifier Alison Bai with a straight sets win 6-2 6-3 to set up a semi-final match up against Chiaki Okadaue, the number eight seed who won her quarter-final match against Chinese Taipei player I-Hsuan Hwang. Okadaue fought back from a set down, 7-5 then took the second 6-4 before steam rolling her opponent in the third and final set, 6-0.
In the other quarter final the number three seed, Australian Jessica Moore got off to a flyer against Cagla Buyukakcay of Turkey, leading 5-0 in the first set but had trouble serving the set out, until she finally closed it out 6-4. Buyukakcay hit back in the second to take it 6-1. Moore hung tough in the third to book her spot in the semi-final winning the final set 6-4. Moore will be up against Russian number two seed Arina Rodionova in the other semi-final after Rodionova beat Zi Yan of China in three sets. Zi Yan won a closely contested first set before Rodionova won the second 6-3 and finished the better in the third, 6-2 to progress.
Tomorrow’s semi-finals will commence at 11am AEDT with Jessica Moore up against Arina Rodionova on centre court. This will be followed by the other semi between Jarmila Groth and Chiaki Okadaue.