Svitolina to play Sasnovich for title | Kyrgios sets up Dimitrov semifinal in Brisbane

Brisbane: Elina Svitolina switched gears after a poor start to knock out holder Karolina Pliskova and set up a title clash with qualifier Aliaksandra Sasnovich at the Brisbane International on Friday. Third seed Svitolina was staring at a potential hammering at the hands of her big-hitting Czech opponent as she went behind 4-0 in the opening set before finding her feet to seal a 7-5 7-5 victory in an hour and 39 minutes. Sasnovich became the first qualifier to reach the final at Brisbane as she overcame a leg injury to dump out seventh seed Anastasija Sevastova 7-6(3) 6-4 in the other semifinal.

Kyrgios rallies past Dolgopolov 

Nick Kyrgios turned on the style in time to beat Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov and set up a semifinal against top seed and holder Grigor Dimitrov. The mercurial Australian huffed and puffed in a miserable first set but eventually found some rhythm to come through a tricky encounter 1-6 6-3 6-4. Bulgarian Dimitrov also had to battle hard against Britain’s Kyle Edmund, winning 6-3 6-7(3) 6-4 in two hours and 23 minutes. — Reuters