By Chris Oddo | Friday July 24, 2015
Anna Karolina Schmeidlova won her 8th consecutive match on Friday in Bad Gastein to set up a semifinal with Sam Stosur.
Photo Source: Bad Gastein
On the WTA Tour, many young players have difficulty backing up a big week with another. Not Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. The 20-year-old Slovakian is showing no signs of a letdown on the red clay of Austria this week. After notching her 2nd title of 2015 a week ago in Bucharest, the Slovakian moved into the semifinals at Bad Gastein with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Annika Beck of Germany.
The world No. 44 broke four times in 15 opportunities against Beck and only surrendered one break to triumph in one hour and 17 minutes.
Since falling to CoCo Vandeweghe at Wimbledon, Schmiedlova has won 15 of 16 sets including an eye-opening straight-sets win over Sara Errani in the Bucharest final.
"I'm feeling great. I really like it here," she said. "It's been a good few weeks for me and I was really happy with the way I played today as well. I'm looking forward to the semifinals now."
Waiting for her will be Sam Stosur, who moved past rapidly improving Danka Kovinic, 6-3, 6-2, to reach her second semifinal of the season.
In the other half of the draw, Sara Errani moved past first-time quarterfinalist Darya Kasatkina, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, to set up an all-Italian semifinal with Karin Knapp. Knapp had to perform double-duty on Friday due to the fact that her second-round match with Johanna Larsson was washed out on Thursday. The 28-year-old took care of business in style, downing both Larsson and Polona Hercog in straight sets on Friday to reach her second semifinal of 2015.
Knapp owns a 3-1 career edge over Errani (1-1 at tour-level), while Stosur is 1-0 vs. Schmiedlova.