South African world-acclaimed doubles player Raven Klaasen and Ruan Roelofse continued their impressive Potch Open campaign on Thursday by upstaging Belgian Julien Cagnina and Nicola Kuhn of Spain in straight sets in the quarterfinals. The South African duo prevailed 6-1 7-5 in just 65 minutes to book their place in the semifinals of the ATP Challenger 80 event being played at the North-West University in Potchefstroom. The first set was a masterclass from Klaasen and Roelofse as they won the opening set untroubled in just 29 minutes.
The second set was far tighter but Klaasen and Roelofse dug deep and secured victory. In the singles event, Turkish sixth seed Cem Ilkel, Taiwanese Chun-hsin Tseng, Dimitar Kuzmanov of Bulgaria and British qualifier Liam Broady have all advanced to the quarterfinal round following victories in their respective matches. In the women’s event, South African rising star Zoe Kruger secured her place in the quarterfinals of the Ilana Kloss International after defeating Dutch third seed Bibiane Schoofs in straight sets.
The 18-year-old dominated her opponent for much of the match, but the opening set seemed very competitive, but the South African wildcard eventually took it 6-4. Kruger served out the set and the contest soon became one-sided, with Schoofs getting just one game on the board as she went down 6-1 in the second. Kruger will next face unseeded Hungarian Anna Bondar for a place in the semi-final of the ITF $25,000 World Tour event.
“My match today was really tough, luckily it wasn’t as long as my previous matches, but I still had to fight to get through it,” said Kruger. “The opponent I played was a bit older than I am, and she was really, really tough, and very nice as well. We respected each other on court and I think it was a great match. Zoe’s sister, Isabella’s good run in the Ilana Kloss International ended in the second round after falling to fourth seed Reka-Luca Jani of Hungary 6-3 6-1.
Joining Kruger in the quarterfinal round, will be Dutch top seed Lesley Kerkhove who eased past Sada Nahimana of Burundi 6-3, 6-1. Spanish sixth seed Nuria Parrizas-Dias also advanced after eliminating Joanne Zuger of Switzerland 7-6(5) 6-1. Russian Ekaterina Makarova booked her spot following a straight sets 6-1 6-3 victory over Jodie Burrage of Britain.
