Mandy Minella reaches Ladies Championship Gstaad semi-finals

Mandy Minella secured a place in her first WTA Tour semi-final since coming back into action following maternity leave with a straight-sets win over Sara Sorribes Tormo at the Ladies Championship Gstaad.

Luxembourg’s Minella, who returned to the tour in February after giving birth in October last year, continued where she had left off – after beating second seed Johanna Larsson – to defeat the Spaniard 6-1 6-2.

Marketa Vondrousova will be her semi-final opponent, the Czech player coming through 6-2 6-3 against Evgeniya Rodina of Russia.

Top seed Alize Cornet of France beat Australian Samantha Stosur, the fifth seed, 6-4 7-6 (7/2). She will play Eugenie Bouchard after the Canadian defeated Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova 7-5 6-0.

At the BRD Bucharest Open, number one seed Anastasija Sevastova battled through to the semi-finals.

The Latvian recovered from losing the opening set to beat home player and fifth seed Sorana Cirstea 3-6 6-3 6-2.

Slovenian Polona Hercog is up next after the eighth seed beat Ons Jabeur 6-3 6-1.

Second seed Mihaela Buzarnescu also remains on course for the final after the Romanian beat Yafan Wang of China 7-6 (7/4) 6-3.

Buzarnescu faces Croatian fourth seed Petra Martic, who saw off Germany’s Laura Siegemund 7-5 4-6 6-4.