Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza advances to Cincinnati semis

Spain’s Garbiñe Muguruza advanced to the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a 64, 63 victory Friday afternoon over Hungarian qualifier Timea Babos.

The fourthseeded Spaniard did not drop her serve once and converted three of the nine breakpoint chances she created to take the match in just over an hour and a half.

With the win, the 22yearold Muguruza ran her career mark against the 41stranked Babos to 40.

In Saturday’s first semifinal, Muguruza will take on Czech No. 15 seed Karolina Pliskova, a 63, 46, 62 winner Friday over seventhseeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Secondseeded German Angelique Kerber also advanced to the semifinals on Friday with a 46, 63, 60 win over Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro and is now just two wins from wresting the No. 1 ranking away from American Serena Williams, who withdrew from the Western & Southern Open due to a shoulder injury.

The secondseeded Kerber will square off against either Polish No. 5 seed Agnieszka Radwanska or thirdseeded Romanian Simona Halep in Saturday’s second semifinal.

In the men’s event in Cincinnati, fourthseeded Canadian Milos Raonic cruised to a 63, 64 victory over eighthseeded Austrian Dominic Thiem and will next play either Scottish top seed Andy Murray or Australia’s Bernard Tomic in Saturday evening’s first semifinal.

The second semifinal will pit Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov, a 76 (108), 62 winner over American Steve Johnson, against Croatian No. 12 seed Marin Cilic, who defeated countryman Borna Coric 62, 00, ret.

The Western & Southern Open is one of the biggest hardcourt tournaments on the ATP Tour and WTA Tour calendars and a key tuneup event for the U.S. Open, which gets under way on Aug. 29.