FEMALE SEMIFINALS DEFINED

Italy's Nicoletta Stefanova and Japan's Hiroko Fujii will play on of the semifinals of the main singles draw in the Brazilian Open. The other match will be between Lee Eun Hee - who defeated the Japanese Saki Kanazawa - and Haruna Fukuoka, who beat South Korea's Moon Hiun Jung. The matches will take place at 10h and 10h45 respectively, this Sunday.

 

Stefanova won 4-3 against Sayaka Hirano, after winning 2-0 and allowing the Japanese to turn the match over.

 

"I don't know how I won", the Italian admitted. "I wasn't confident and I didn't know what to do". Stefanova said that she took advantage of a moment of lack of focus of the other player to regain the control of the game. "On the fourtgh set she started making silly mistakes and, so, I reacted.

 

In the other match, Fujii won the tournaments sweetheart, the France's Carole Grundisch, pointed out as the most likely winner of the tournament after defeating Tamara Boros, first top seed of the main draw. The final score was 4-2, partials: 3-11, 4-11, 11-9, 4-11, 14-12 and 9-11.

 

"I was a bit nervous, so it was good to win the first couple of sets to build up my confidence",  the Japanese player declared.