Vera Lapko became the last remaining seed to fall at the Tashkent Open as she was defeated by Mona Barthel in Uzbekistan.
The No. 2 seed lost in straight sets 6-3, 7-5 to crash out in the quarterfinal stage while Barthel progressed to her first semifinal since February.
“It feels great to have good results after a struggling for the past six months,” Barthel said to the Tashkent Open media team. “Since the Prague event in 2017, I have struggled and I went out of the Top 100 this year.
“I have had a lots of ups and downs, but the last few weeks I have played some good matches and I’m feeling better now.”
The result came on another day of upsets. Earlier in the day No. 6 seed Anna Karolina Schmiedlova lost in straight sets to Kateryna Kozlova before Anastasia Potapova beat No. 6 seed Dalila Jakupovic.
Former world No. 41 Margarita Gasparyan was the final player to the advance to the semifinals after she defeated Fanny Stollar 4-6, 6-2, 6-1. Gasparyan will face Barthel in Friday’s semifinals while Kozlava plays Potapova.
“All the girls in the draw are good players,” said Barthel, who at world No. 94 is the highest ranked player in the final four. “I’m not thinking about title but on my performance match by match. I know I just have to play my best tennis every day.”