American Crawford Pummels Petkovic to Reach Brisbane Semis
American qualifier Samantha Crawford continued her outstanding run to at the Brisbane International on Thursday, rolling past Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-0 to reach the semifinals.
After the two exchanged breaks midway through the opening set, Crawford held a 4-3 advantage as Petkovic was serving. The young American responded right away with another break point, and consolidated it with a hold to close out the first set.
And she carried that momentum into the second set, breaking Petkovic three times and winning all six games to move on in less than an hour. Crawford entered the tournament with no wins over top 50 opponents, and has now beaten two top 25 opponents on back to back days.
The Atlanta native will have her hands full in the semifinals as she squares off against Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian, who won this tournament in 2009, defeated U.S. Open finalist and eighth-seed Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 on Thursday.
“I’m pretty pleased with tonight,” said Azarenka. “I feel like I was really focused from the beginning and I knew she wasn’t going to give anything away so I had to take control and really dictate the play. I’m glad I stayed strong and focused in the difficult situations and really fought for every point.”
The other semifinal in Brisbane will pit fourth-seeded German Angelique Kerber against sixth-seeded Spaniard Carla Suarez-Navarro.
