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Cornet, Bencic, Samsonova into semis

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Alize Cornet was at full stretch before beating Garbine Muguruza in the WTA tournament in Berlin.
Camera IconAlize Cornet was at full stretch before beating Garbine Muguruza in the WTA tournament in Berlin. Credit: EPA

Alize Cornet, Belinda Bencic and Liudmila Samsonova all needed final set tiebreaks to reach the semifinals of the Berlin grasscourt tournament.

France's Cornet provided the most drama, saving a match point in the 10th game of the third set against former Wimbledon champion and sixth seed Garbine Muguruza, squandering four chances of her own in the tiebreak before finally prevailing 4-6 6-3 7-6 (7-5).

"It was a long match with a lot of emotion, especially in the tiebreak," said Cornet, who famously beat Serena Williams at Wimbledon in 2014.

"I was always behind in the score in the third set but I kept grinding, I kept fighting to the end and it's a really nice victory."

Fifth seed Bencic survived 15 aces from Ekaterina Alexandrova to win 6-4 4-6 7-6 (7-4) and Russian qualifier Samsonova continued her strong run at the tournament, winning 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-6 (7-0) against Madison Keys.

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The final quarter-final is between seventh-seeded Viktoria Azarenka and Jessica Pegula.

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