Swiatek stunned as Kudermetova seals semi-final spot at Toray Pan Pacific Open

Iga Swiatek's return to action has been halted at the Quarter-Final stage with the World No.2 losing at the Toray Pan Pacific Open to Veronika Kudermetova on Friday morning. A win that puts the Russian into her sixth semi-final of the season.

Swiatek had a dominant record over Kudermetova winning all previous eight sets in dominant fashion. She had only lost four games, but the tables were turned in a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 win.

Taking advantage of a slow start from Swiatek initially, she raced into a 4-0 lead after 17 minutes. It didn't get much better as Swiatek managed just three winners in the opening set with 20 unforced errors. Kudermetova hit three winners to nine unforced errors in a much cleaner opener.

Swiatek finally started to find her range, but couldn't convert break chances albeit she began the second by winning eight of the first nine points and earned the first break of the match. She would break again to send it into a decider.

But in the final set, Kudermetova in a drawn out game broke on her third break point to go 3-1 up. She went into protection mode doing what she needed to on her serve to seal the win from there. Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova now awaits who saw off Ekaterina Alexandrova in the Quarter-Finals. A first semi-final since her run to the 2021 Roland Garros final.

In the opposite half, Jessica Pegula is bidding to join them, with Maria Sakkari - Caroline Garcia bowing it the line-up.