St Petersburg Ladies' Trophy: Caroline Wozniacki ousted by Daria Kasatkina, Petra Kvitova thumps Jelena Ostapenko

Moscow: Australian Open champion and World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki lost 7-6 (2), 6-3 to local player Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Friday. Fresh from her first ever Grand Slam title the Dane had raced to the quarter-finals but had been expecting the Russian to give her a difficult time. [caption id=“attachment_4333483” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Daria Kasatkina celebrates after beating Caroline Wozniacki. Image courtesy: Twitter @WTA[/caption] “It’s gonna be difficult but I’m excited about it,” the 27-year-old said ahead of the clash with the sixth seed Kasatkina. Fourth seed and defending champion Kristina Mladenovic of France made an important step to retaining her title with a straight-sets win over Czech Katerina Siniakova on Friday. Mladenovis, ranked 10th in the world, prevailed 6-4, 6-3 to book a semi-final spot and to record her second win over the 21-year-old Siniakova in their fifth head-to-head meeting. Mladenovic will face Kasatkina. “It was a very good match as she (Siniakova) has been on great all season,” Mladeniovic said on-court after the match. “I’m very happy with the intensity that I’ve put into the game today. “No doubts the semi-final will be extremely difficult as Dasha (Kasatkina) is such a talented youngster and she always plays at her top in front of her home crowd.” Meanwhile, Czech two-time former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova cruised comfortably into the last four losing just two games in her 58-minute match with reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-0, 6-2. In the match for a place in the final Kvitova, who appeared in the main draw courtesy of a wild card, will clash with Germany’s Julia Goerges, who ousted another Russian Elena Rybakina 6-3, 6-3. “At this tournament, every opponent is very hard to beat and I will need to show my best tennis to win the semi-final,” Goerges said.