Cleveland | Lucky loser Sorribes Tormo upsets Kudermetova

The quarter-final line-up was almost completed on Wednesday at the Tennis In The Land WTA 250 tournament in Cleveland, when Ekaterina Alexandrova and Tatjana Maria advanced, but Veronika Kudermetova was sent packing by Sara Sorribes Tormo, while Sloane Stephens’ match against Mirra Andreeva was suspended overnight because of rain.

Alexandrova, the 4th seed from Russia, beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich, a qualifier from Belarus, 7-6(2) 6-3, in 97 minutes, to set up a Last 8 meeting with Xinyu Wang, another qualifier from China.

The Russian won 73.8% of her first-service points, 31 of 42, and fired 6 aces to just one by Sasnovich in the process.

Wang upset 11th seed Jasmine Paolini from Italy, 6-4 6-3, in their 2nd-round match on Tuesday.

Germany’s Maria, who made it into the quarters without striking a ball when her opponent, Anhelina Kalinina, the 5th seed from Ukraine, pulled out ahead of their match, will next face Canadian wild-card entrant Leylah Fernandez in the quarter-finals.

Maria had won her 1st-round match on Tuesday against France’s Varvara Gracheva, 6-2 2-6 6-1, while Fernandez advanced after Denmark’s Clara Tauson retired midway in their match, after the Canadian had taken the opening set, 6-0.

The big news of Day 4 was Spain’s Sorribes Torma, who stunned the No 3 seed, Veronika Kudermetova, a wild-card from Russia, 6-4 6-1, after an hour and 43 minutes.

Sorribes Tormo, who was ousted in the final qualifying round but made it into the main draw of the tournament as a lucky loser, converted 5 of 7 break points, compared to 2 of 5 by Kudermetova, while the Spaniard also won 26 of 39 first-service points, 67%.

In the first set, Sorribes Tormo held a 3-0 lead, but Kudermetova battled back to move 4-3 ahead, when the Spaniard rebounded to break two times more to snatch the opener, and then pretty much cruised through the second.

The World No 95, who had also benefited from the retirement of Czech Katerina Siniakova at 6-2, 4-0 on Monday, awaits the outcome of the match between Stephens, the 9th seed, and the talented Andreeva, the16-year old, which will be completed on Thursday.

Stephens was leading 6-3, 3-0 against the unseeded Russian when the match was suspended due to thunderstorms.

Top seed Caroline Garcia from France made it through to the quarter-finals of the Cleveland Open on Tuesday when the Frenchwoman beat American Peyton Stearns, 7-6(4) 6-3, in an hour and 37 minutes in their second-round clash.

Garcia, who made it to the Bett1 Open quarter-finals in Berlin during the grass season ahead of Wimbledon, plays Lin Zhu from China on Thursday for a spot in the semi-finals.