By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Thursday March 4, 2021
It has been a banner week for WTA young guns named Clara in Lyon, France. Clara Tauson, 18, and Clara Burel, 19 (both former junior No.1 players), are both into their first career quarterfinals in France’s *other* city of lights.
Tauson, a hard-hitting phenom and a former junior No.1, barreled past Timea Babos on Wednesday to reach her first career quarterfinal, 6-2, 6-3. That victory came on the heels of her first-round takedown of top-seeded Ekaterina Alexandrova. The Dane, who now sports a tidy 2-0 record against the Top 50, will face Italy’s Camila Giorgi in Friday.
Burel, who reached the third round at Roland Garros last year, powered past Alizé Cornet and Aliaksandra Sasnovich to book a quarterfinal clash with compatriot Fiona Ferro.
“Of course it gives me a lot of confidence for the next tournaments,” said Burel. “I’m really happy to be in the quarterfinals and hope to win more matches here.”
Greet Minnen, Viktoria Golubic and Kristina Mladenovic have also advanced to the quarterfinals at Lyon. Ferro [2] and Mladenovic [4] are the highest remaining seeds.