Top 20 players Danielle Collins, Liudmila Samsonova and Madison Keys dodged the rain on Thursday as they all cruised into the Internationaux de Strasbourg semifinals.
No.3 seed Collins was the day's last winner, getting past Clara Burel, 6-1, 6-3. With this win, former World No.7 Collins is projected to return to the Top 10 in Monday's updated rankings.
Earlier, No.5 seed Samsonova was the first victor of the day, toppling No.2 seed Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-3, 6-0 after 1 hour and 29 minutes of play.
No.4 seed Keys also reached the final four with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Magda Linette. Keys had to overcome a near five-hour rain interruption which started at 4-1 in the first set.
The fourth quarterfinal, between No.1 seed Marketa Vondrousova and Anhelina Kalinina, was postponed to Friday morning. The winner of that match will come back later on Friday to face Collins in the semifinals.
Head to Head
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Barring any additional weather delays, Keys will play Samsonova in Friday's semifinals of the WTA 500 clay-court event. Keys leads their head-to-head 3-1, including a 6-2, 6-3 win on the clay of Madrid mere weeks ago.
Collins cruises: Playing in her announced final season on tour, World No.12 Collins has been nearly unstoppable this spring as she charges back towards the Top 10. Collins needed just 63 minutes to eliminate Burel, the last remaining French player in the singles draw.
Burel is sitting at a career-high ranking of No.43, and she knocked out defending champion Elina Svitolina on Wednesday. However, she was denied a second consecutive Top 20 win by the red-hot play of Collins.
Collins has won 21 of her last 23 matches, with back-to-back titles in Miami and Charleston followed by runs to the Madrid Round of 16 and the Rome semifinals. She has only lost to World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka during this stretch of fierce form.
On Thursday, Collins was dominant from start to nearly the finish, but she faltered when serving for the match at 6-1, 5-2 as Burel broke for the first time. However, Collins' returns were too daunting in the next game, and Burel lost serve to cede victory to the American.
Samsonova sweeps: Earlier, in the first meeting between two heavy hitters, World No.19 Samsonova broke 12th-ranked Haddad Maia in the opening game of their match. However, Haddad Maia garnered three break points in a lengthy 4-3 game and nearly got back on serve.
But Samsonova was able to hold on for 5-3, and that proved to be the breaking point. Samsonova won the last eight games of the match to prevail, never dropping serve all day while going 5-for-7 on break points.
In her tournament debut, Strasbourg is helping to kickstart Samsonova's season. This is only her second semifinal of the year (after Abu Dhabi) and she is still just 8-11 on the year.
Keys continues surge: Meanwhile, World No.16 Keys extended her stellar run on the clay by defeating 50th-ranked Linette in 69 minutes (not including the rain delay). Keys was never broken in the match, and she fired 24 winners, tripling Linette's eight.
After missing the first two months of the season to rehab her shoulder, Keys has caught fire on the red clay of Europe, going 9-2 in this swing and making three straight quarterfinals or better.
The only player to beat Keys during this year's European red-clay stretch is World No.1 Iga Swiatek, who ended her runs in the Madrid semifinals and the Rome quarterfinals and went on to win both titles.
"I’m feeling really good so far with my clay season," Keys said afterwards. "Having missed the beginning of the season, I was really wanting to have a couple of wins in a row, just to feel like I’ve got a grip on my year, and so far, so good."
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