Tennis: Slovenian Majeric breezes into Tesoro Challenger semifinals
PORT ST. LUCIE — There isn't a magic formula for Slovenia's Tadeja Majeric — she just keeps winning.
The 22-year old Slovenian advanced to the semifinals of the Tesoro Challenger by easily beating No. 5 seed Florencia Molinero 6-3, 6-1 on Friday at The Racquet Club at Tesoro.
"I don't know why, but I'm doing really well," said Majeric, the No. 4 seed. "I'm really relaxed before the match, I don't think too much and I'm really relaxed when I walk on the court. I don't care about the score, actually.
"(Friday), I think I was mentally stronger. At the beginning, we were really close in the games, and then I broke her and suddenly she went a little bit down."
Majeric has won her past two $25,000 tournaments and has not lost since the second round of the OrtoLääkärit Open in Helsinki, Finland, in mid-November.
She has not tried doing anything spectacular. Instead, she is focusing on minimizing mistakes and forcing opponents to beat her.
Molinero had lost only seven total games heading into the quarterfinals, but made a number of unforced errors against Majeric.
"I want to play really simple," Majeric said. "I'm playing really consistent and it works for me for now. I'm playing with a lot of confidence right now."
Majeric will play top-seeded Shuai Zhang of China in the semifinals. Shuai advanced after quarterfinal opponent Ajla Tomljanovic retired in the third set with a leg injury.
Tomljanovic won the first set 6-2 and had a 3-0 advantage in the second set before her leg started to bother her.
"I feel that my opponent, in the first set and the beginning of the second set, played perfect," Shuai said through interpreter/coach Shuo Liu. "She was very solid, very aggressive and didn't make any mistakes. I just looked for any chance to make long rallies, but I never gave up.
"I have more confidence after the last three matches and I feel stronger. I'm looking for the challenges that are coming (Saturday)."
No. 2 seed Sharon Fichman of Canada will meet unseeded Tetyana Arefyeva from the Ukraine in the second semifinal Saturday.
Arefyeva easily handled No. 6 seed Catalina Castano 6-1, 6-2, while Fichman beat Adriana Perez 6-1, 6-3. After her second round match lasted nearly four hours, Fichman only needed 98 minutes to beat Perez.
"There were definitely moments I thought I played pretty well," Fichman said. "I was serving better and I didn't have many mental lapses. I was just taking it point-by-point and it worked out well."
The day wasn't all bad for Perez and Molinero. The duo beat the team of Nicole Melichar and Natalie Pluskota 7-6 (1), 6-3 to advance to the main draw doubles final, which will be Sunday.
They will meet Angelina Gabeva and Allie Will, who came from a set down to beat Jan Abaza and Louisa Chirico 4-6, 6-2 (10-6).
Perez and Molinero reached the finals of the Innisbrook Women's Open last week.
"We started really good and they were great players, too," Perez said. "We just kept thinking 'Cross, cross, cross and get to the net and we can do it,' and it worked. We have a really good communication on the court."
