Home favourite Bertens to face Riske in ‘s-Hertogenbosch final

Top seed Kiki Bertens delighted the home crowd as she secured a place in the final of the Libema Open with a straight-sets victory over Kazakh qualifier Elena Rybakina.

The Dutchwoman had played two matches on Friday to continue her progress at ‘s-Hertogenbosch and showed no let-up as she saw off Rybakina 6-4 6-4 to reach her third WTA Tour final this season.

The world number four, who claimed the titles in both St Petersburg and Madrid, will face Alison Riske on Sunday, which will take place on Centre Court after the conclusion of one of the delayed men’s semi-finals from the ATP event.

The American earlier pulled off a remarkable comeback during the final set to beat Russian Veronika Kudermetova 6-4 3-6 7-6 (5).

“She’s a great grass court player, so it is going to be really tough,” Bertens said, quoted by the WTA Tour website. “I’m just really happy to be in the final of my home tournament.”

Riske had come from a break down during the final set and then won the last five points of the tie-break to clinch victory in some two hours and 12 minutes on court.

“It was such a battle. I thought Veronika played absolutely amazing tennis and I’m just so grateful to be through,” Riske said.

At the rain-hit Nature Valley Open in Nottingham, top seed Caroline Garcia was on the brink of victory against Jennifer Brady when their semi-final was eventually postponed because of more bad weather.

American Brady, who upset fourth seed Maria Sakkari in the quarter-finals, had taken the first set 6-4 before another suspension in play.

Having finally been able to get out onto the grass to resume action shortly after 6:30pm BST, Frenchwoman Garcia was able to recover and swiftly levelled the match when taking the next set 6-3.

However, with Garcia 4-3 ahead in the decider and a break up, play was again interrupted before the decision was made to call it a day just after 8pm.

Garcia’s match will be played to a conclusion first from 11am BST, with the final set to start not before 3pm.

Earlier, second seed Donna Vekic had been able to beat the showers and defeat Tatjana Maria 7-5 6-0 6-0.

After five consecutive days of rain have seen numerous washouts and delays, some of the tournament’s matches had been moved to nearby indoor hard courts.

“It’s definitely been a crazy week for everyone, but everyone has to deal with the same things, as well,” Vekic said. “I was just trying to adapt as good as I could, and to stay focused whatever the weather brings me.”