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Beck earned the semi-finals after a three-hour marathon

And while Voegele surprised us all a bit by winning against the 12th player of the world, the German confirmed the status of the favorite, and beat the incredibly good Pole Piter in a three-hour match

Although she didn't play well, the Swiss kept her calm in the key moments of the match and for the second time in two weeks defeated the uninterested Stephens, thus reaching her second semi-finals in a row. In a match which lasted almost two hours we didn't see a particularly good game style, and next to that there were a lot of errors.

The first set was full of breaks. In a total of seven out of nine games the players couldn't keep their service. It more looked like a clay match than an indoor one where short changes are expected, and thanks to a service with more "free" points. In such a game the Swiss fared better: she "breaked" four and with no points lost at the set service got the advantage. The second set starter out identical. The service torture continued, and we witnessed a total of 12 break balls, but this time the American used her chances better and thus scored as deuce. Should we even mention that the key part of the match was identical as the others? That was also due to fatigue this time, noticeable in both players, and it was only a matter of who will fall first. It was the three years younger American, so Voegele was able to celebrate after the battle.


In a match with a total of 16 service have been taken away from her, next to "numerous" unused break chances, the Swiss showed more consistency and took advantage of Stephens' truly disastrous edition. American's body talk, like in the previous match, showed us that she want to end the season as soon as possible. Knowing her, that doesn't come as a surprise, especially knowing that she has no possibilities to earn the placement for the final tournament.


- I'm tired and I can't wait for the season to be done so that I may rest - she said after beating Meusberger, so this game isn't strange, which the motivated Swiss used in the best way possible.


In the fight for the first finale of her career she will see the German teenager Annika Beck on the other side, who also never came this far. She came to this position over the biggest surprise of this tournament - the Pole Piter, after a three-hour thriller. Piter showed great grit and forced the German to the very end, but didn't succeed in doing the final step, so she will have to wait a bit to score her first semi-finals.


The German started the match in a great way. With three breaks in the first set and one gaffe on her own, she took the advantage. In the second set the Pole consolidated for a moment and took the lead with 2-0, but then the German had a streak of five consecutive games and a lead of 30-0 on the service match, but didn't manage to capitalize that. Since then her game soared down, she started making errors which the Pole used in the tie-break and even out the score. Beck had the advantage in the key set, but Piter quickly annulled it at the score of 5-5 and tried to reach the match ball, but the German reacted quickly and reached the tie-break in which she didn't stumble this time, but reached victory.


The match will be remembered by long changes from the baseline in which Beck wasn't overly offensive, but she made a lot of errors. The Pole looked exhausted at the end of the match which comes as no surprise, since she didn't get used to the pace which has been following her these past two weeks: she played 11 matches in 13 days. The German won this match thanks to her freshness, since she couldn't directly realize points. Today Voegele could take an advantage of that, and when we add the German's fatigue, which was apparent, next to that, Beck could hardly stand a chance against the Swiss who has shown great shape in the past two weeks.

Today Beck will be punished for yesterday's performance. The German player had 6-3 5-2 and 30-0 against a player that barely managed to stand on her feet. She has given away couple of games, she hit soft balls and Piter started to score. A one-way road became a maze and the match lasted more than three hours. Beck has won, but she seemed mentally and physically very tired. Strong changes, insecurity during playing and too many non forced errors in defense exchanges have brought about this drama. Voegele should use all of this. The truth is that even she didn't play brilliantly yesterday, but she has defeated the twelfth player in the world second time in a row in two weeks. This is still a success. German player's play is based on a defense and a lot of running and yesterday she emptied her reservoir quite thoroughly. She won't have enough time to recuperate and I expect a big downturn of her play. My recommendation is even a handicap, and I wouldn't be surprised if one set ends with a bigger difference for a Swiss player.