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Kerber crashes out in Brisbane

Cape Town - Sixth-seeded Elina Svitolina beat world number one Angelique Kerber of Germany in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International on Thursday.

The Ukrainian needed three sets to defeat top-seeded Kerber, winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 in a match lasting just under two hours. Svitolina will be up against Czech Republic third seed Karolina Pliskova next in the semi-finals.

The 22-year-old Svitolina started well by immediately breaking serve then holding her own to lead 2-0 but Kerber came straight back into the match by holding her own serve then breaking back.

The very next game, Kerber dropped serve and thereafter things went with serve for Svitolina to claim the set 6-4.

At the start of the second set, Kerber and then Svitolina had their serves broken and in the eighth game the 28-year-old Kerber claimed her opponents serve and served out the set winning it 6-3.

In the decider, Svitolina always looked like she had the edge and despite dropping her serve in the third game she came storming back with two breaks of her own in the fourth and eighth games to serve out the match winning it 6-3 in the end. 

In the other quarter-final results, third seed Pliskova beat Italian eighth seed Roberta Vinci 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 while fourth seed Garbine Muguruza Blanco of Spain had a straight sets victory over Russian fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, winning 7-5, 6-4. 

In another upset, the unseeded Alize Cornet of France sent second seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia crashing out of the tournament with 6-3, 7-5 win.

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