BOGOTÁ, Colombia -- No.7 seed Ana Bogdan of Romania made it two WTA semifinals in a row on Friday when she dispatched Chilean qualifier Daniela Seguel 6-1, 6-1, to enter the final four at the Claro Open Colsanitas.
Bogdan, who reached the semifinals last week on hardcourt at the Abierto GNP Seguros in Monterrey, was not flummoxed by the switch to clay, and cruised through her quarterfinal match in 68 minutes, just hours after she completed a come-from-behind, two-day barnburner over Anna Blinkova in the second round.
Bogdan will face Anna Karolina Schmiedlova in the semifinals. The Slovakian also picked up two wins on Friday, most recently taking out Colombian wild card Emiliana Arango in the quarterfinals, 6-1, 1-0, ret.
The other semifinal is yet to be fully determined. During the Bogdan-Seguel match, No.5 seed Lara Arruabarrena of Spain entered the semifinals by polishing off a 6-1, 6-3 victory over No.3 seed Johanna Larsson of Sweden. The Spaniard will meet the winner of the match between No.2 seed Magda Linette of Poland and Slovenia's Dalila Jakupovic, which was postponed until Saturday.
The powerful play of Bogdan was in full effect from the very first game. The Romanian hit three straight forehand winners to reach break point, which she converted for a 1-0 lead. Bogdan then held at love, taking the game with a drop shot, which proved to be a consistently successful play during the set against Seguel, who was often well behind the baseline.
Three straight breaks followed, culminating in a 4-1 game which Bogdan took behind a massive backhand winner down the line. A quick love hold gave the Romanian a 5-1 advantage, which helped when she had to fight through a lengthy game on the Seguel serve.
The Chilean staved off four set points in that game, often coming into winning positions via her heavy forehand with incredible spin. But a solidly struck forehand winner by Bogdan brought her to set point for a fifth time, and she finally closed out the set at that instance. The Romanian dominated the opener, with 17 winners and only four unforced errors.
The one-way traffic never stopped, as Bogdan zoomed through the second set as well. A frustrated Seguel misfired on an overhead to drop another service game and give Bogdan the early 2-0 lead, and the big-hitting Romanian fired an ace to hold for 3-0.
Seguel finally held for the first time in the match, reaching 3-1 behind a lovely drop shot. But after pushing Bogdan to deuce in the next game, the Chilean hit two groundstroke unforced errors to let Bogdan off the hook, and the Romanian steamrolled to victory from there. Bogdan finished her triumph with an astounding ratio of 23 winners to just eight unforced errors.
More to follow...
