Martic ousts Pliskova; Samsonova to face Muguruza in Tokyo QFs

Tokyo [Japan], September 22 (ANI): World number 46 Petra Martic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Toray Pan Pacific Open with a 6-3, 6-4 win over No.6 seed Karolina Pliskova.
Martic will play Zhang Shuai in her upcoming quarterfinal, which will be her fourth of the year.
Martic broke a two-match losing trend to Pliskova in a match where she played the crucial points better, and she now leads the tour-level head-to-head 4-3.
"I'm really happy with today's match. Karolina is a great player, beat me quite a few times in the past," WTA.com quoted Martic as saying.
Nine out of ten break points in the match were made by Martic, including four in the fifth game of the second set. Martic broke the Czech's serve four times in 1 hour and 35 minutes, luring her into her maiden quarterfinal in Tokyo with her backhand slice and court coverage.
Martic smashed 17 winners compared to 22 unforced errors by the end of the match, while Pliskova had 23 winners to 25 unforced errors. However, the match was ultimately determined by the former champion's lost opportunities.
No.30 Liudmila Samsonova advanced to the quarterfinals later in the day as she defeated Wang Xinyu 7-6(5), 6-3.
Next up for Samsonova, who has now triumphed in 15 of her previous 16 games, is No. 3 seed Garbine Muguruza.
"I expected a tough match and I'm just happy to win it. It's not easy to play indoor when you prepare the match outdoors," Samsonova said.
"So it was a little bit different conditions. She was playing amazing, I think she's a great player already. My serve today was hopefully good enough to maintain my game," she added. (ANI)