Andreescu smashes Kasatkina to reach Bad Homburg semi-final

Bianca Andreescu continued playing good tennis on German soil with the Canadian beating Daria Kasatkina 6-4 6-1 in Bad Homburg.

Andreescu showed a fairly strong level in Berlin last week but she ran into an inspired effort from Pliskova who proved better. She served for the match in that one but that good level transitioned to Bad Homburg where she will contest the semi-final. It's been a great week for her and today's performance was just a testimony to the hard work she has been putting in.

Kasatkina is not a player whom you easily defeat even on the grass where she's not as good. The Russian is capable of playing a very strong defensive style that sends a lot of balls back but today she was overmatched. The crucial part of the match was the start where Andreescu fended off several break points across a couple of early games.

She broke her opponent in the first return game and after surviving that dramatic beginning Andreescu largely cruised. She dropped her serve when she served for the opening set at 5-3 but broke back immediately to seal the set. The start of the match gave her a lot of confidence and she never lost it.

She cruised to a 6-1 finish in the 2nd set simply smashing Kasatkina from the baseline for the semifinal. A good run for the Canadian head of Wimbledon. It was very much needed.