Martic beats Bencic to set up Garcia semi-final in Lausanne

Petra Martic beat home favourite Belinda Bencic to set up a semi-final against Caroline Garcia at the Ladies Open Lausanne.

Martic toppled the second seed with a 6-3 7-6 (7-2) victory on Friday.

The unseeded Croatian, who was beaten by eventual champion Elena Rybakina in the fourth round at Wimbledon last week, claimed the only break of the first set to lead 5-3 and held her nerve to serve it out. 

Bencic twice came from a break down in the second set to force a tie-break, but Martic raced into a 6-0 lead and duly moved into the last four.

The 31-year-old Split native will come up against Garcia, who beat Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-4 6-1.

Frenchwoman Garcia also reached the last 16 in the grass-court grand slam at SW19 and has won 11 of her past 12 matches.

Unseeded duo Olga Danilovic and Anastasia Potapova will contest the other semi-final following victories over Simona Waltert and Wimbledon quarter-finalist Jule Niemeier respectively.

At the Budapest Grand Prix, Anna Bondar is through to the last four without dropping a set in her homeland after defeating Martina Trevisan 6-4 6-1.

Ninth seed Bondar will face Bernarda Pera, who beat Elisabetta Cocciaretto 6-4 6-3. Yulia Putintseva had won all eight games before Lesia Tsurenko retired from their quarter-final due to injury and she will take on Aleksandra Krunic, who cruised past Wang Xiyu 6-0 6-1.