Donna Vekic shocks Maria Sakkari in latest upset to set up Berlin Open final clash with Petra Kvitova

ByJames Hilsum

Updated 24/06/2023 at 17:59 GMT

Donna Vekic powered into the Berlin Open final with another shock win, taking out sixth seed Maria Sakkari. Both players took to the court twice on the penultimate day of action, winning quarter-finals against Elina Avanesyan Marketa Vondruosova respectively. Vekic will face Petra Kvitova for the trophy, after the seventh seed defeated Caroline Garcia and Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Donna Vekic produced another upset to take out sixth seed Maria Sakkari and reach the Berlin Open final, where she will face Petra Kvitova following her win against Ekaterina Alexandrova.

Three of the four semi-finalists took to the court twice on the penultimate day of action in the German capital, after rain on Friday forced the quarter-finals to be pushed forward a day.

Sakkari overcame Marketa Vondruosova in the last eight, while Vekic beat lucky loser Elina Avanesyan, both in straight sets.

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Kvitova, a two-time Wimbledon champion, beat third seed Caroline Garcia before eliminating Alexandrova, who was the only semi-finalist to avoid two matches following Veronika Kudermotva's injury-enforced withdrawal.

Vekic triumphed 6-4 7-6(8) in the first semi-final of the day, setting up a meeting with seventh seed Kvitova.

The Croatian, ranked 23rd in the world, caught the eye when she defeated No. 2 seed and reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the second round.

She is now on the brink of a second title of the season and fifth career title after battling past Sakkari in two hours and 16 minutes.

Vekic extended her head-to-head advantage over the Greek to 5-3 in a performance where she landed five aces and edged her opponent with four breaks to three.

Kvitova earned a 6-3 6-4 win over Alexandrova in 79 minutes, ending the Russian's seven-match winning streak.

That came after a blockbuster top-10 clash in the last eight, where she won in straights sets against Garcia.

The world No. 9 won 6-4 7-6 against the world No. 4 in a match where both players showcased their excellent service quality.

Kvitova claimed the first set after breaking her opponent in the first game and doubled that advantage by holding her own serve.

Garcia recovered with a comfortable hold to love, before breaking the Czech for the first time to wipe out her lead.

After the next two service games were held, Kvitova secured a crucial break at the fourth opportunity at the end of a pulsating rally which went to deuce seven times.

Kvitova then held her serve to move 5-3 ahead, before Garcia successfully kept herself in the set to reduce the arrears.

Momentum was firmly in Kvitova's favour though, as she wrapped up the tenth game to love and move one set ahead.

We were still waiting for another break of serve after seven games of the second set, but it could have been a very different story had Kvitova taken advantage of two break points which went awry in the first game.

After comfortably drawing level on her serve to love, the world No. 9 missed another chance to break the Frenchwoman and then won her serve again.

Garcia recovered from 15-40 to move 3-2 ahead, before the next three service games were held to leave the match finely poised.

Kvitova saw two more break points go missing in the ninth game, as the strength of Garcia's serve saw the Czech hit a return into the net.

With still no breaks of serve in the next two games, a second-set tie-break was needed.

We finally saw a break of serve with Garcia 3-1 down at the tie-break as she hit a return wide. After the next three games went to serve, the Czech broke the Frenchwoman again to leave herself three match points.

She secured her place in the last four with the second of those and will face Ekaterina Alexandrova in the last four on Saturday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Sakkari booked her place in the semis with a 7-6 6-1 win over Vondrousova, but was made to sweat after a nervy first set.

Sakkari made a fine start after breaking Vondrousova in the first game and then followed that up by holding her serve to move 2-0 ahead.

However, any hopes of a comfortable win for the Greek were quickly extinguished in a first set that went right down to the wire.

The world No. 53 would win the next match on her serve and broke Sakkari at the second time of asking to wipe out her lead.

Vondrousova’s service game was particularly impressive and moved into the lead after deuce in the fifth game. After Sakkari levelled things up on her serve, she did the same by winning to love.

There was to be no break of serve in the remainder of the first set, with both players showing their prowess from the baseline.

Maria Sakkari

Image credit: Getty Images

A tie-break beckoned as the score went to 6-6, but this crucially went Sakkari's way to ultimately break the Czech's impressive resolve.

Despite losing her serve twice, Sakkari would prevail 9-7 after the tie-break after Vondrousova was left to rue not taking advantage of four set points.

The world No. 8 finally moved ahead at 8-7 and ultimately drew first blood in the contest.

For all the tension of the first set, Sakkari wrapped up the second in less than half an hour to blow Vondrousova away.

She crucially broke the Czech in the fourth game to move 3-1 ahead and won her serve again to extend her lead. The world No. 53 then lost her serve again to leave the Greek a chance to serve out for the match.

Sakkari did so comprehensively by winning to love and advanced to the last four, where she will face Croatia's Donna Vekic.

Vekic overcame Russia's Avanesyan in straight sets, winning 6-2 7-6 to set up a Saturday afternoon meeting with Sakkari.

Turning attention over to Birmingham, No.1 seed Barbora Krejcikova secured her place in the final with a straight-sets win over China's Lin Zhu.

Zhu, who was Katie Boulter's conqueror in round one, was comfortably beaten 6-3 6-2 by the world No. 12.

Krejcikova will face Jelena Ostapenko in a final between the top two seeds, after the Latvian took out Anastasia Potapova.

Ostapenko defeated the fourth seed 5-7 6-2 6-4 in just over two hours to reach her first Tour-level final of the season.

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