After Wednesday’s set of quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Open, we have the first two members of the final four: eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and third seed Karolina Pliskova.
After losing to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova twice this year, at the Apia International Sydney and the Australian Open, Kuznetsova took advantage of the surface that would seem to favor her and eliminated her fellow Russian in straight sets, 6-3 6-2. The 19th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova dropped serve in the opening game and never truly recovered, while in the second set Kuznetsova won the last six games to advance to the semifinals.