BAKU, Azerbaijan — To take their seeded place in the Baku Cup final, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Karin Knapp of Italy will have to pass two first-time semifinalists on the WTA tour.
No. 1-seeded Pavlyuchenkova defeated Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals on Friday, saving all four break chances she faced, while No. 2-seeded Knapp beat Alexandra Panova of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (4) to even their head-to-head at 2-2.
Pavlyuchenkova will meet Patricia Maria Tig of Romania, who stymied the only break chance Donna Vekic had, and beat the Croatian 6-3, 6-2.
Knapp faces Margarita Gasparyan, who won an all-Russian quarterfinal with Evgeniya Rodina 6-3, 6-2.