Cincinnati Tournament | Keys and Garcia qualified for the semi-finals

(Cincinnati) Madison Keys, 24^e world champion and winner of the event in 2019, qualified first for the semi-finals of the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati on Friday, beating 6-2, 6-4 the Kazakh Elena Rybakina (25^e).

The American will face the Czech Petra Kvitova (28^e) or Australian Ajla Tomljanovic (63^e).

Like the day before against the world No.1 Iga Swiatek, Keys proved intractable to dismiss Rybakina, yet victorious at Wimbledon six weeks ago.

The latter was penalized by a faulty first ball (41% success), offering too many opportunities to break to her opponent (13) who succeeded five times, using her power (21 winning shots against 11) .

Caroline Garcia, 35^e World Cup, also qualified for the semi-finals by beating 6-1, 7-5 the American Jessica Pegula (8^e), Friday.

The 28-year-old Frenchwoman, looking for a third title this year, which would be the 11^e of her career, will play against Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka (7^e) to try to reach the final of this tournament for the first time.

Coming from the qualifications, Garcia had already managed the good performance of beating the world N.3 Maria Sakkari in 2^e tower and the Belgian Elise Mertens (33^e) in 8^e. At the end of July, she had already offered the scalp of the world N.1 Iga Swiatek in Warsaw.

Aggressive and precise in the exchanges, full of confidence and effective on the return (59% of the points won), Garcia was intractable in the first set, pocketed in just 28 minutes.

The second set was much tighter, neither player giving the slightest opportunity to get broken until the 11th.^e Game.

Garcia then released powerful returns on second opposing balls, which caused Pegula to foul. It only remained for her to close the deal on her serve, which she did without trembling after 1:13, to equalize with two victories everywhere in their face-to-face.