BERLIN: Americans Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys lost to Victoria Azarenka and Lyudmila Samsonova in the singles quarterfinals of the German Open on Friday.
Pegula, who defeated fourth seed Karolina Pliskova for the fourth time this year on Thursday, went down to seventh seed Azarenka 6-2, 5-7, 6-4. The Belarusian was playing her first grass-court quarterfinal since Wimbledon in 2015.
Ranked 106, Samsonova took nearly two and a half hours to beat Keys 7-6(4), 2-6, 7-6 (0).
Samsonova will take on Azarenka in the second semi-final of her career on Saturday.
Alize Cornet and Belinda Bencic will meet in the second semi-final after coming through a third-set tiebreak in their quarterfinals.
Cornet saved a match point before defeating sixth seed Garbine Muguruza 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5), and fifth seed Bencic overcame Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 defeated by )
This will be the 31-year-old Cornet's first semi-final on grass.
Bencic is in his fifth place on the grass. The Swiss hit nine aces against Alexandrova, who responded with her 15. Bencic won the first two points in the tiebreak and maintained his lead.