Romanian tennis player Irina Begu has qualified for the semifinals of the WTA 500 tournament in St. Petersburg on Friday, with total prizes worth 768,680 US dollars, after defeating Czech Tereza Martincova, 6- 4, 6-2.
Begu (31 years old, WTA's 56) played very well again, winning in one hour and 25 minutes.
Martincova (27 years old, WTA's 42), who benefited from the withdrawal of Kazakh Elena Ribakina, seed no. 3, on Thursday, had won her only match that she played before against Begu, in 2019, in the first round of the tournament in Tashkent, 6-7 (4), 6-4 , 6-4.
Irina Begu won a cheque of 39,000 US dollars and 185 WTA points for reaching this far in the competition, with her next opponent to be Greece's Maria Sakkari, seed no. 1, or Belgium's Elise Mertens, seed no. 8