Mladenovic beats Wozniacki to reach Indian Wells’ semi-finals

NAN-S-20
Tennis
By Victor Okoye
Abuja, March 16, 2017 (NAN) France’s Kristina Mladenovic on Thursday beat former champion Caroline Wozniacki to reach the Indian Wells semi-finals and break into the world’s top 20.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the fast-improving 23-year-old, seeded 28th, saw off the 2011 winner and 13th seed Wozniacki 3-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.

Mladenovic next faces seven-time Grand Slam champion Venus Williams of the U.S. or Russia’s Elena Vesnina.

Mladenovic added Wozniacki to Venus Williams, world number three Karolina Pliskova and, earlier this week, fourth seed Simona Halep in the list of leading names she has beaten in 2017.

She began her quarter-final game slowly, falling behind 5-1 against Wozniacki, who was in form herself after recent finals in Doha and Dubai, and had won all three of their previous matches.

But the Frenchwoman showed why her singles game is beginning to match the level that sees her currently ranked third in doubles.

Her more powerful game began to dominate Wozniacki and, after edging the second set in a tie-break, Mladenovic raced way with the decider as the Dane struggled with an ankle problem.(NAN)
VO/OLAL
=========

(Edited by Olawale Alabi)