MOSCOW: German Julia Goerges and Russian Daria Kasatkina enjoyed straight-sets wins on Thursday to reach the Kremlin Cup semi-finals, where they will be joined by Irina Begu and Natalia Vikhlyantseva. Kasatkina, 28th in the world rankings, beat Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-4 6-3. Kasatkina will face Romanian Begu, who saved a match point in the third set before beating Belarusian qualifier Vera Lapko 6-3 4-6 7-5. After losing the first two games of the match, seventh seed Goerges, the highest-ranked player left in the tournament, defeated Lesia Tsurenko 6-3 6-4. She will next meet Russian Vikhlyantseva who upset Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 4-6 7-5 6-3. Published in Daily Times, October 21st 2017.