Tennis News

HONOLULU, HI, USA – Top seed Zhang Shuai moved into the Hawaii Open semifinals on Friday with a hard-fought win over Samantha Crawford.

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Breaks in the fifth game of both sets proved decisive as Zhang closed out a 6-4, 6-4 victory in an hour and 18 minutes.

Honolulu is the final event of a memorable year for Zhang that has seen her emerge as an unlikely standard bearer for Chinese tennis. Little more than 12 months ago, Zhang was contemplating retirement on the back of a dispiriting spell on tour. Sam Stosur talked her out of it and she has been on an upward trajectory ever since.

In January she ended her long-running Grand Slam hoodoo by making it all the way through qualifying and into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, building on this platform with credible showings in Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and Zhuhai to leave herself on the verge of the Top 20.

Meeting her for a place in the final will be No.6 seed Evgeniya Rodina, who posted a battling win over Sachia Vickery. Rodina, who won last week’s OEC Taipei WTA Challenger, was forced to dig deep against Vickery prevailing in a tense finale to triumph, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, in a fraction under two hours.

Another player on the up is CiCi Bellis, who confidently booked her final four spot by swatting aside Sara Sorribes Tormo, 6-1, 6-1.

Bellis recently broke into the Top 100 for the first time after back-to-back titles on the ITF Circuit, and broke serve six times against Sorribes Tormo to extend her winning sequence to 12 matches. Next she faces Jacqueline Cako, who advanced when Sabine Lisicki retired with a shoulder injury.

Madison Keys has ended her coaching relationship with Thomas Hogstedt. Keys’ agent Max Eisenbud confirmed the split to WTA Insider. No new coach has been announced.

The news comes on the heels of Keys’ career-best season, which saw her qualify for her first BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global and finish the year ranked No.8.

“Thomas and I have a rich history of working together with Li Na, Maria Sharapova and most recently Madison,” Eisenbud told WTA Insider. “His work with all three of these girls speaks for itself. Coaching on the women’s tour is not easy and sometimes these relationships just don’t work out, nothing more than that.”

Keys and Hogstedt, who also coached Caroline Wozniacki and Eugenie Bouchard, began working together in April and their collaboration netted immediate results. Keys made the biggest final of her career at the Italian Open in Rome and won her second career title at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham, England, launching her into the Top 10.

Their success continued over the summer hardcourt season, as Keys made another big final at the Rogers Cup in Montréal and the semifinals at the Olympic tennis event, before making the second week at her sixth straight Slam at the US Open.

Keys is currently scheduled to begin her season in Melbourne at the Australian Open.

News of the split follows two other high-profile coaching changes, as US Open finalist and World No.6 Karolina Pliskova ended her long-time work with Jiri Vanek and No.14 Elina Svitolina ended her partnership with Iain Hughes.