Tímea Babos defeats Patricia Mayr-Achleitner to reach semis

She clobbered a 6:4, 6:2 victory against the world number 103 to secure a final four spot at this WTA International event taking place in Monterrey, Mexico.

In a race to fight for a shot at their maiden WTA career title, the 18-year-old Babos edged past the Austrian in 67-minutes. Facing each other for the first time, the Hungarian spilled more errors and clobbered a lower first serve share. However, she impressively marked 20 out of 35 points on it and broke her opponent’s serve seven times to earn the glory.

The opening set saw a series of serve breaks but the contender who prevailed in the end was Babos. The teenager drew the first blood in the opening game and took the initial lead. She maintained her intensity and broke the Austrian’s entire serve. However, the Hungarian failed to defend four breakpoints she came across and levelled the scores at 4:4. Babos re-focused her strategy in the last game and managed to keep her serve for the first time, ultimately winning the opener with a 6:4 score line.

Ranked 107th in the WTA rankings, Babos increased the level of her game in the proceeding set. She leaped to a 2:0 lead after earning the coveted break in the opening game. The Hungarian then capitalised on another break chance in the fifth game and kept entire serves to bag the set with a 6:2 win. She warded off all five breakpoints she faced and availed 15 out of 20 points on her higher first serve share.

The high spirited Hungarian shocked third seeded Sorana Cirstea en route to quarters. She made an epic comeback from a set down to register a 4:6, 6:4, 6:2 victory against the Romanian.

Next challenge for Babos is the second seed, Sara Errani, who crippled the Luxembourgian challenger, Mandy Minella, in straight sets to set-up this duel.  The Italian dominated throughout the match and after breaking the underdog’s serve six times, she manifested a 6-1, 6-2 score line in their second face-to-face.