Naomi Broady defeats Sabine Lisicki to reach Malaysian Open semi-finals
Friday 4 March 2016 17:30, UK
Britain's Naomi Broady has reached a WTA Tour semi-final for the first time in her career after beating Sabine Lisicki in the last eight of the BMW Malaysian Open.
The British No 3 overcame the German third seed 7-6 (7-4) 1-6 7-5 in Kuala Lumpur in a contest which lasted more than two-and-a-quarter-hours.
Broady had a break point in the first game but Lisicki held and went on to establish a 2-0 lead.
Unseeded Broady broke back and although she dropped her serve in the ninth game she levelled matters once more and prevailed in a tense first set tie-break.
The second set was one-way traffic as Lisicki found her form and powered through, but Broady recovered in the third, saving three break points to claim a notable success.
The 26-year-old will now face Eugenie Bouchard after the Canadian sixth seed breezed past Cagla Buyukakcay 6-1 6-4.
On the other side of the draw, second seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine rallied for a 1-6 6-1 6-1 win over Slovakia's Kristina Kucova to set up a meeting with qualifier Lin Zhu, a 6-3 6-4 winner over Qiang Wang in an all-Chinese encounter.
