Home » Anett Kontaveit advances to the semifinals of the Hamburg European Open and will next play Maria Sharapova.

On Thursday, Anett Kontaveit advanced to the semifinals of the European Open in Hamburg. Andrea Petkovic, the eighth seed from Germany and the player ranked first in the tournament, retired due to injury, allowing the top seed to advance.

At the time of the latter’s midmatch retirement, the Estonian had a 6-0, 2-0 lead. To reach the finals, Kontaveit must defeat Anastasia Potapova. In an hour and eleven minutes, Potapova defeated third seed Barbora Krejcikova 6-1, 6-3.

Against the Czech’s first serve, Potapova won 63% of the points served and 59% of the points returned. While the 2021 French Open champion and Potapova both had trouble winning points on their second serves, Potapova fared better, winning 38% of her second-serve points to the 2021 champion’s 21%.

While Potapova did drop her serve three times, she broke Krejcikova seven times. Both Kontaveit and Potapova have only played against each other once before, in 2018 at the Moscow Open. The match was a rout, won in two sets by the world number two.

German tennis star Bernarda Pera continues her winning ways at the European Open in Hamburg.

And in the other semi-final match in Hamburg, seventh seed Maryna Zanevska and eighth seed Bernarda Pera have advanced. The match lasted 1 hour and 35 minutes, and it ended with the Belgian defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich, the fourth seed.

Seven times during the match, Zanevska won a point by breaking Sasnovich’s serve, but she also lost her own serve five times. Nearly 57% of the points on her first serve went to her, while 48% went to Sasnovich. Pera, who had won seven straight main draw matches dating back to Budapest last week, advanced to the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Krejcikova’s doubles partner Katerina Siniakova in an hour and eleven minutes.

The percentage of points won by the American on her first serve was 79%, and on her second serve, she was at 50%. In addition to gaining four breaks on Siniakova’s serve, she also defended against two break points. Maryna Zanevska and Bernarda Pera will be facing each other for the third time when they meet in the semi-finals of the Hamburg European Open. In their two previous meetings, neither player was able to win both times.