Nadia Podoroska Advances to French Open Quarterfinals

Nadia Podoroska continues her Cinderella run at the French Open

The 23-year-old Argentine tennis player, a qualifier at this year’s event, outlasted the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 on Sunday to reach the quarterfinals at Roland Garros in her maiden appearance at the Grand Slam tournament.

Nadia Podoroska

Podoroska, ranked No. 131 in the world, will face third seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine for a place in the semifinals.

Podoroska was the second qualifier to make the tournament’s last eight on Sunday following Italian world No. 159 Martina Trevisan‘s win over Dutch fifth seed Kiki Bertens.

Podoroska, who was ranked at No. 255 at the start of the season, has now won 42 matches across all tours in 2020, despite the truncated season, and will make her top 100 debut after the tournament.

She will now bid to emulate compatriot Paola Suarez who made the semifinals in Paris in 2004.

Three years ago, on her only other visit to Paris, Podoroska fell in the first round of qualifying, losing to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in just 39 minutes, winning just 21 points.

Duque-Marino Wins Two Matches to Reach Nuremberg Cup Finals

Mariana Duque-Marino is a superwoman…

The 26-year-old Colombian tennis player had to play not one, but two matches on Friday to reach the final at the Nuremberg Cup.

Mariana Duque-Marino

Duque-Marino will now play for her second career title against Dutch qualifier Kiki Bertens in Saturday’s final.

Duque-Marino, ranked No. 98 in the world, played three sets for nearly three hours in the morning in outlasting Varvara Lepchenko 5-7, 7-6 (4), 7-2 in a quarterfinal that was postponed on Thursday because of rain.

Duque-Marino needed only just over an hour to dispatch third-seeded Annika Beck of Germany 7-5, 6-1 in the afternoon. Beck was the last seed in the tournament.

The tournament is a warm-up for the French Open that gets underway on Sunday in Paris.

Suarez Navarro Reaches the Quarterfinals at the Brazil Cup

Carla Suarez Navarro is still in the hunt at the Brazil Cup

The 25-year-old Spanish tennis player, the tournaments top seed, defeated Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens 6-3, 7-6 (2) to reach the quarterfinals of the Brazil Cup on Wednesday.

Carla Suarez Navarro

Both players broke serve twice in the final set, but Navarro dominated in the tiebreak to finish out the match in 1 hour, 45 minutes. The match was briefly interrupted in the second set because of rain.

Navarro will face fifth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania, who beat qualifier Danka Kovinic of Montenegro 6-3, 6-1.

Third-seeded Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic, trying to reach her third final this year, cruised into the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over French qualifier Alize Lim.

Zakopalova, runner up at last week’s Rio Open, will face Alexandra Dulgheru of Romania, who defeated Brazilian Teliana Pereira 7-5, 6-2.