Opponent withdrawal advances Kanepi to semi-finals in Melbourne
Kaia Kanepi (WTA 94th) was supposed to face off against Czech Republic player Karolina Muchova (WTA 27th) in the quarterfinals of the Gippsland Trophy on Friday morning, but an injury to Muchova led to the Estonian advancing to the semi-finals without having to play a single point.
The 35-year old Kanepi and 24-year old Muchova were set to play on the court named Margaret Court in Melbourne, but an abdominal injury kept Muchova out of the match.
Karolina Muchova has withdrawn ahead of the quarterfinals at the Gippsland Trophy due to a left abdominal injury.
— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) February 5, 2021
Kaia Kanepi receives a walkover into the semifinals.
Kanepi's walkover victory advances her to the semi-finals to face off against the winner of a match between world second-ranked Simona Halep and world ninth-ranked Ekaterina Alexandrova.
Kanepi faced off against world 129-ranked Australian Astra Sharma in the opening round of the WTA 500 Gippsland Trophy tournament on Sunday, taking the tournament opener in straight sets. Kanepi followed that victory with a 2:1 win over Arina Sabalenka of Belarus and advanced to the quarterfinals after beating Darya Kasatkina in straight sets.
After all matches in the two parallel Australian Open warm-up tournaments - the Grampians Trophy and Gippsland Trophy - were cancelled on Thursday due to a hotel staff member testing positive for COVID-19, Friday's matches were to be played in a best-of-two sets format with a decider super tie break set.
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Editor: Kristjan Kallaste
