Pegula holds off Navarro, Noskova upsets Andreeva in Bad Homburg
Top seed Jessica Pegula and unseeded Linda Noskova set up a semifinal meeting at the Bad Homburg Open after contrasting semifinal wins on Thursday.
Bad Homburg: Draws | Scores | Order of Play
Pegula held off fellow American Emma Navarro in a three-set quarterfinal 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 to advance to her first semifinal since winning the Credit One Charleston Open in April, while Noskova's 6-3, 6-3 upset of No. 3 seed Mirra Andreeva ended an even longer semifinal drought. The Czech last played in a semifinal in April in Abu Dhabi, and seeks her first Hologic WTA Tour singles final since winning her first tour-level trophy in Monterrey last August.
Pegula, who won her first grass-court title last year in Berlin, needed one minute more than 2 hours to hold off her Olympic teammate, who turned the match into a proper fight after falling 5-2 behind in the first set. Pegula stymied Navarro's continued momentum after a one-sided second set by saving a break point at 1-1 in the third, and kept her lead from then on.
After losing the opening match of her title defense to Liudmila Samsonova last week -- a match that lasted more than 3 hours and saw Pegula fail to convert multiple match points -- the World No. 3 said she was happy to avoid similar perils against Navarro in a match that was interrupted by rain early on.
"We got a little lucky with the rain," Pegula said post-match. "It seemed to settle down a bit because when I was warming up, it was really really difficult. Even though the rain isn't good, I think it turned into a really beautiful afternoon, so that was really nice.
"It was still a little breezy, a little gusty at times, and it's grass -- so it makes every shot a little more awkward -- so I was just really trying to focus on getting my feet under me and trying to focus on my shots."
Noskova finds her feet: Noskova earned her ninth career Top 10 victory over Andreeva in a match that lasted 1 hour and 18 minutes -- and in which the Czech never lost serve.
World No. 30 Noskova won three of the last four games of the first set -- breaking Andreeva at love in the sixth game -- and won the last four games of the second set to move through to the final four. Noskova last won three matches at a tournament in Dubai -- two weeks after her last semifinal appearance of the season -- and coincidentally, upset Pegula at that event in the Round of 16.
